Shame: An Akatsuki Adventure Story!
by SongCall
Summary: Five girls find their old hobbies coming back to haunt them when they're forcibly pulled into the world of Naruto Shippuden: A place they thought they had left behind for good. Follow them as they try to make sense of what their life has become while trying to squeeze the dangerous band of rogue ninja into this new otherworldly epiphany! ( AKATSUKI X OCs ) Pairings confidential!
1. Chapter 1: Locker Lunch Date

**Chapter 1: Locker Lunch Date**

"Did she really? No... No way... What a mess!"

"Got something to say about it? You could always shut the Hell up."

"I... I'm not very social..."

"That sounds amazing! You know you're really good at what you do!"

"..."

* * *

"Ahh..."

It was the soft sound of a nostalgic remembrance that tumbled from the young brunette's mouth. She peered into the box of forgotten scripts, filled with old notebooks: torn, falling apart, discolored with age. It had been a while since she had revisited this chest of old-time wonders. All of the old pieces she had written back in her youth were stacked atop one another, covered with age and dust, and yet, she had never had the guts to toss them. As an author, it was her duty to hold onto her memories and reference them every now and then to ensure that she was still on the track to a steady improvement.

...Or maybe that was just her need for reassurance that made her do that. If it seemed like she never fell behind her old curb, then she would be sure that she was never a bad writer.

Her fingers dug through the box, grazing cardboard and lackluster content until falling upon a red-covered journal. Her chocolate-colored eyes narrowed into squints, staring down to try reading the smudged and faded marker signing that adorned the front.

"Oh!" She felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment.

' _Naruto Self-Insert: Amber's Adventures.'_

Her lips spread themselves thin, and her free hand's palm pushed firmly against her cheek in a vain attempt to keep the heat from spreading.

It was such an old story, she could hardly be held accountable, right? She could always toss it, but if someone found it, it would be too easy to link it back to her - she remembered documenting all the little bits of information about herself there. Her name, her age, her appearance, her birthday, her parents' and friends' names, all of it was littered through the pages.

"How embarrassing..." In the midst of her momentary drama, one could probably even see the little tear that breached the corner of her eye.

Not just the story, but the interest itself. It had been ages since she'd stopped watching Naruto. After getting well-into her junior year of high school, she had just come to the point where she realized the intrigue had become the calling of a social disaster. Besides, with how busy she had become, it had just become a pass time that had fortunately escaped her as the years went by.

Still... curiosity was calling...

Just before her finger could tug at the cover, there was the sound of a large vehicle outside her window coming to a gradual break.

The bus!

"Shoot!" She bounded to her feet, hiking up the window to wave to the driver, letting him know that she would be out there momentarily. With one swift motion, she had her books and bag in hand, along with the travel cup of tea she had prepared a little earlier. She ran through the kitchen, backtracking once to take a precautionary glance to the stove and oven and ensure they were both off, before dashing out through the front door.

Her feet expertly avoided the dividends and puddles from the snow that had melted just the day before, and with a hop-skip-and jump, she'd landed herself up on the bus steps.

"Thanks so much for waiting!" She chirped, and as one would have it, the craggy, distasteful disposition of the driver had flipped completely in response, "Anytime, Amber."

"What?" Someone piped up from the mid-to-back section of the bus, flicking her hand up with a distasteful huff. Her dark brown, nearly black eyes shot to the driver's in his large rear-view mirror, "What the Hell's that, Jack? You'd've left, if that was me!"

The busdriver's craggy expression returned, his eyes seemed nearly lifeless in response to the outcry of one of the most... outspoken delinquents that took to his bus. He responded with a sharp, replying glance, and a snide quip, "If you weren't such a handful, I wouldn't have a problem with it."

"Handful?" The short haired girl let herself out of her seat, easing to the edge of the bus aisle just enough to quirk her rear up in a less-than appropriate pose, "Don't insult me, Jack, I'm way more than a handful~."

The _oo's_ and _ah's_ of the onlookers erupted at the display before their subsequent laughter was quickly dashed by the busdriver's trigger-foot smashing the gas for a moment.

The loud girl was dropped back into her seat from the jerk, her howling amusement never quitting.

By this point, the bus was back in motion, and Amber had long taken her seat near the front of the bus, never even seeing who this loud girl was. It was common knowledge that one didn't get involved with these ever-so-frequent arguments between adult and teen unless they wanted trouble to follow them afterwards. Especially a girl like that, Amber knew, not by name, but by record, as one that was not to be trifled with. She was rough and bold, as well as easily described as a little disrespectful. Having that directed at her? Amber uttered a soft "Pfft..." before shaking her head and turning to peer out the window at her side, "Nooo, thank you."

Getting to school was thankfully without hassle, or at least without any out-of-the-ordinary hassle.

Amber walked into the school as if it were a breath of fresh air. To be frank, it was. Things could be a little lonely at home, and school was like a big escape. Surely, she wasn't exactly the 'popular' type - didn't rush into the school and get immediately greeted by her multitude of eager friends, or join up with a massive clique, but she enjoyed the peace.

"Good morning," She murmured to herself blissfully, sipping her tea, and walking to her locker. She slid the combination in with quick flicks of the wrist and popped open the olive-painted container. In just that quick a moment, it felt as if all of her piece shattered before her like broken glass.

There, in a small, adorable package - was a bundle of panic. To be more specific, there was a green-topped Zetsu plushie settled on the top shelf of her locker in plain sight.

She quickly slammed the locker.

It required her to briskly set her tea down on the floor, but that was fine! She couldn't risk any passerbys catching a glimpse of that.

Her gloved palms rested firmly against the door, brown eyes fixated on the door of the locker as if seeing through it. "No... No no..." She had to relax. Being as prone to stress as she was, it went without saying that she was immediately jumping to the worst-case scenario. That plush wasn't her's. So then... what? How did it get into her locker? No one else knew her combination. Someone knew..? Someone was playing a joke on her revolving around her past obsession.

Was it hot all of a sudden?

She dug her finger into the inside of her soft orange scarf to tug it from her neck, "Hah..." Air poured from her lips, eyes shutting for just a moment in order to recover her senses. First, she had to see if anyone saw that. People in the school could be described as... observant - of course only when one never wanted them to be. She scanned her surroundings subtly, craning her neck just slightly to get the most inconspicuous field of vision she could.

At that moment, her eyes locked onto a pair of blue ones that seemed to stare back at her with just the same quizzical stare. The both of them quickly averted their gazes, Amber with a hasty shift and the blue-eyed girl with a slow and awkward turn.

' _I am literally praying right now...'_ Amber, with her forehead pressed to her locker and eyes firmly closed, thought to herself with a reddening face, ' _Please don't let her have seen.'_ She knew little personally about this blue-eyed girl, only rumors around the school that circulated often, due to her spot at the top of the social tier. If she or one of her usual clique-members had so-outspokenly asked of the plush, how would she respond? _Oh, I don't know how that got there!(?)_ That would have been the most disastrous...

Amber shook her head, sighing softly before picking up her tea in hand from the floor. The thought of drinking it after having taken her eye off of it for so long made her uneasy, and she merely dropped it into the trash.

The day had started off so good, but this sudden unsolved mystery was doing a wonderful job of ruining it.

She was far too on-edge to relax.

The brunette coursed her fingers through to the edges of her ponytail, fiddling with the strands between her fingers to habitually calm her active nerves. She still had time before she needed to be in class, but she figured it would be best to get there early before some other thing popped up to stand in her way. Luck typically worked in a big cluster like that, didn't it?

Class was going well, but Amber, ever-the-forward-thinker, had excused herself midway through for a bit. Of course, the teacher allowed her to go; she was officially labeled as the 'teacher's pet', after all. It was a title she carried with pride, and a title that carried some serious perks.

"I can just grab my books for next class now... Maybe my next two classes." It would be more of an inconvenience, but it would make sure she could do something about that plush beforehand.

Maybe she was going a little out of her way to cover something like that up? She should take pride in her interests, whether new or old... While that would be the advice she would openly give to someone, albeit running the risk of sounding like the Wise-Old-Owl, she was honestly not nearly confident enough to practice what she preached. A flaw, yes, but a flaw she was willing to admit. She cared about what people thought of her, and she lived to secure that image.

She made haste to the locker, gripping the combination lock in hands.

' _Maybe I should be careful...'_

It was true that someone had apparently opened her locker before, and if that was the case, there was no telling what kind of person it was. Someone out to get her? Someone that clearly had more information on her and her interests than the entirety of the school... And with so little known about them, it would be dangerous to simply assume they weren't malicious in intent.

Her fingertips carefully slid the numbers around the wheel and even more carefully slid the lock from its place.

Nothing sudden. That was a good sign.

One of her deep brown eyes shut, the other squinting with a bracing skepticism.

As she opened the door, she was finally able to release a breath of relief. There was nothing there but the things she had left, and the flytrap boy plush. She reached inside, gripping it in her hands. It was so soft... It felt new too - even had the tag on it still. Her head tipped to see if she could read a name or anything on it, but the sound of approaching footsteps sent her cramming it into the deepest part of her top shelf.

"Amber!"

The brunette jolted hard at the sound of the authoritative voice. She turned to peer over her shoulder, slowly glancing up to the familiar voice of the principal, "S-Sir..?" He sounded furious, maybe even with a mix of panic weaved in too.

"Have you seen Lisa?"

She stared blankly for a few moments, staring at the older male before slowly knitting her brows together, "I..." She hesitated, taking a second trip through her head before responding, "I don't know... who that is."

The male sighed exasperatedly, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Of course." He shook his head, "Thank you anyway." With that, the male went storming up the hallway with long strides, further away, but still in range for Amber to hear him grumble to himself, "That girl, I swear... It feels like she goes missing every day."

Amber watched him leave, lips upturned into a frown. Lisa? She really hadn't heard that name before, but with the way he was speaking, it seemed like she wouldn't. It was common-knowledge that people like principals normally only knew your name if you fell somewhere on the spectrum extremes. Either you're such a good student that he memorizes your name for the soul purpose of singing your praise, or you got in trouble so often that he was used to calling you out. Anywhere in between and you were just referred to as 'you', 'that girl/boy' or 'hey'.

She shook her head, "Poor guy needs a break..." She trailed, re-opening her locker.

All of her books dropped from her hands.

There at the back of her locker, the plushie stood right-side-up, not at all the way she had put it in there. More concerning than that was the sickly shade of black that was plastered across the back of the locker, leaving the original back completely invisible.

"W-What the..." Amber's mouth fell agape. How was she supposed to respond to this!? What was this a demon plush? What was she to do, call an exorcism for a random Zetsu stuffed doll that appeared in her locker!?

Her hand shot up to the locker, immediately making a rush to shut the locker door.

"Ah ah ah~..."

The sing-song tone sent a chill up her spine, and before she could accurately slam the door and save herself, she could feel an overpowering strength on the other end, fighting back against her attempts. She'd just... have to push for a little longer. Just...

After keeping up the struggle for only a couple of seconds before finding it a losing battle, she turned heel to run - another vain effort.

She felt the grip of a hand against her forearm, dragging her back.

"No.. No. No-" She shook her head, bubbles of tears brimming in her fearful eyes as another hand now interrupted her beginning attempts to scream by fastening overtop her mouth. Her body rocked violently against the grip, the clear halls cursing her struggle to futility.

What was happening..?

Where was she going..?

She couldn't fit into her locker could she?

So many thoughts of what would become of her completely ate away at her ability to rationalize the seemingly impossible nature of what was occurring. She couldn't even fathom what had taken place. Had someone been hiding in her locker? Was that even possible? Was any of this possible?

None of it could run through her frazzled mind until the door to her locker gently shut. Her books lay stacked at the foot of the locker door, and a single paper slipped from the openings in the door, catching the air to float down until reaching a stop atop her books.

Amber, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found.

* * *

 _A.N.: Hi. If you're new to my Fanfiction page (which you probably are because this is the first chapter of the first story I've ever published here), it's nice to meet you!_

 _To conclude/wrap-up this chapter... Amber got eaten by her locker! Yay!_

 _The moral of the story?_

 _Never trust school equipment._

 _Anywho, I hope you enjoyed! Be sure to read and review too, please._

 _Finally, I mentioned this, for those of you that read my profile. I'm really new and don't know what I'll be calling my followers here. Feel free to leave your suggestions as part of your review, and I'll also be brainstorming. After we get a decent amount of ideas, I'll make a poll and leave it open for a bit so you guys can choose._

 _After all, this is for you, just as well as me. 3_

 _Have a wonderful day, everyone, and a wonderful mid-December._


	2. Chapter 2: Beyond The Leaves

**Chapter 2: Beyond The Leaves**

"Gah..."

It was dark. Everything was dark and she couldn't see even a centimeter out in front of her. There were no silhouettes of a darker variety, no lighter shades or moving figures that swept her vision from place-to-place; in this pitch black, there was just... nothing.

 _Oh._

She opened her eyes.

She had almost forgotten, what with her adrenaline still spiking and body still bracing. She needed her eyes to see. When they opened, they were greeted with a sight that made her immediately shut them back.

Trees and grasses lined area around her, and rocks and boulders to her sides and underfoot. Her blurry vision slowly began to come into focus, brows knitting together inquisitively, "What..?" Her fingers touched against the warm ground under her lying form, dark brown eyes, "Wasn't... In in school..?"

Immediately upon realization she rolled up to her hands and knees, now pressing both of her palms against the grass; it was soft and malleable beneath her pressuring fingers, "Wasn't it Winter..!?"

Someone had overheard her. Her panic rocketed, her adrenaline doing the same - at this rate her body would be tired once her high fell short.

"H-hello..?"

A frigid chill shot through Amber's spine, effectively freezing her body into place. It was enough that she was having a miniature panic attack, but the presence of a previously unseen entity left her too scared to even turn around. Anticipation building and creeping up into her at the sound of shifting feet in the grass, Amber slowly turned her head to peer out from the corner of her eye.

In her field of vision, was a young black haired girl standing at the nearby tree line. She couldn't have been any taller than 5'1, and with the small stature and tired, hesitant expression, she couldn't have been any more intimidating than the Zetsu plushie that was in her locker.

Well. She'd seen how that little oversight resulted.

As she remembered that... undesirable happening, a brisk chill crept up her spine once more, lips twisting in disdain. Luckily, she was still turned far enough away to hide that disdainful expression from the girl that stood at her rear.

Dare she try to interact with this stranger? It was true that the girl was shaking more than a newborn chihuahua, and probably seemed just as fragile as one as well.

Minutes of silence crept over the duo before Amber finally turned fully in the girl's direction, "Hi..."

The silence lingered again, this time far more uncomfortably than before due to just how long it seemed to be dragging out before either of the two dared to speak out again.

"I..." The small, dark haired girl's chest seemed to heave in quick flights of anxiety - if it were beating in tune with her heartbeat at all, there was certainly a chance that the poor girl could wind up losing consciousness soon. "I'm not from...a-around..." Her hand moved from her lips to motion reluctantly to the clearing in what appeared to be a forest, "...Here... Can... er... Do you..."

Amber stared blankly for a moment, mind retreating to a circulating comparison - ' _This girl puts Hinata to shame.'_ Wait. Why was she making that comparison in the first place? Her head shook away the thoughts only to find the black-haired girl quickly back away out from the sudden nature of the action.

"H-hah..!?"

"I mean..." Amber sat down on her shins, hands tucked in between her thighs with a visibly apologetic frown upon her, "I'm not...from around here either." It may have been a half-baked conclusion based on the her previous underestimation of a threat led to being pulled through her locker - if that was true and not just some drug-induced dream from a kidnapper or something-, but Amber was nearly sure at this point that this girl was most-likely in the same pool she was.

"Oh..." The girl kept her distance and kept her vision focused elsewhere.

The silence found its way inside the conversation once more, and the awkwardness had just probably peaked this time. To be frank, from the mood it seemed like no words of conversation would arise again, and the two would most-likely just stand there in a perpetual silence.

Suddenly, the peace of the forest was interrupted by the sound of a strong thump, presumably a foot against the trunk of one of the monstrous trees, "Get the Hell off of me!" It was a rough female voice: a familiar one that sent Amber stiffening in her perch. Discomfort rose in her disposition, and she rose to her feet, while the other poor girl seemed to draw closer to Amber for the sake of feeling protected by numbers.

"I-I'm sorry..." The girl apologized whilst stepping behind Amber completely now, feeling it was known that she was seeking a sanctuary while peeking around the taller brunette.

While initially Amber wouldn't mind the meek response, she could feel a tinge of blue streaking the space beneath her eye. Would she have to keep a brave face for this stranger girl, or was she simply using her for a human meat-shield? Either way, she shook her head dismissively to assure the smaller girl that it was fine, and the two of them kept their gazes locked onto the tuft of tall grasses that began to rustle and shake.

"I said. Let **go,** _princess_!" A voice venomously hissed, and in the moment, one could see a whining blond tumble through the brush with a shriek so high pitched that everyone in the nearby area flinched.

"B-but..!" The blond looked up, blue eyes glistening with the beginnings of a melodramatic puppy-dog stare, "I-I don't know where I am and-"

"Welcome to the club," The gruff girl responded in a husky quip, jamming her hands into the pockets of her short, black denim shorts, "I'm not ferrying you around." The girl continued her rant for just the moment before her familiar near-black eyes descended to reach Amber and the smaller girl who were hesitantly spectating. "Oh, great." She quickly grumbled, leaning forward with hunch in her back in a similar form to the stereotypical delinquents, "Teacher's pet is here too."

A brief jet of aggravation shot through Amber's expression, but she managed to minimalize it to the twitch of a brow and sharp upturn at the corners of her mouth. "Heh," the brunette quietly, yet bitterly huffed.

The blond 'princess' kneeling in the grass looked up as well, eyes immediately falling on Amber as well. The girl she had seen at the lockers earlier that day, wasn't it? "Finally, a familiar face..." She theatrically declared, intertwined fingers clasped together beneath her chin.

"Yeah, that's great," The rough girl interjected, leaning on a nearby tree with narrowed eyes, "Now can we cut the greetings and figure out where the Hell we are?"

It was quiet for a while. Was this supposed to be the same repetitive pattern over and over again? Someone speaking, then the entirety of the group falling into a quiet hush? No one was actually acquainted with any of the others, and some of the people hadn't even seen the faces nor heard the voice of the others around them, leaving the circle of girls wordless. The worst of it seemed to be that amongst them, there was no remnants of what could be considered a definitive leader-figure.

The black haired girl kept her gaze away, Amber brainstormed independently, the 'delinquent' girl, for lack of a better word, seemed to be taking a look at the place from her leaning tree, and the blond 'princess' just let her head and gaze dart around from person-to-person as she eagerly away any kind of breakthrough.

"Anyone... remember anything out of the ordinary..?" Amber finally spoke up.

The nature of the silence shifted to withheld information and awkward sideglances, no one exactly willing to speak up in reply.

Abruptly the blond looked up in reply, "My locker! Someone had broken into it." She nodded firmly, arms folded and blue-eyed gaze shifted away.

"Why do you say that?" Amber cautiously inquired, though, of course, she already had a pretty good idea.

"When I checked it in the morning..." her fingers interlocked together, a subtle breath of air dropping from the corner of her lips, "...there was this really strange little stuffed toy in there."

Strange little stuffed toy. Amber recognized that body-language. She was just as embarrassed. There was no real malice there, but she could tell the blond was clearly not in the business of being judged, even despite the seemingly dire circumstances.

"Don't you worry, Kuzu-kun, I won't let anything happen to you!"

The group of girls quickly shifted their gazes to the sound of a squeaky feminine voice that was growing nearer by the minute.

Out from the brush stepped a girl even smaller than the little black-haired one that came before, her paler blue eyes shifting between each individual girl. In her hands- or rather, pinned between her oversized sleeves, sat an Akatsuki plush: Kakuzu, to be exact. She looked at the group of girls, and immediately raised to wave her sleeve, "Hellooo..."

Silence.

"So... Did um." The small golden-blond dug her toe bashfully through the dirt, looking up with a tipped head, "Did you guys wind up here too..? I mean... It may sound crazy..." She trailed, waving her hands defensively, "But I think my locker ate me." Surely was a blunt little thing, wasn't she?

The lot of them were stunned, and the silence continued to waft until Amber looked briskly away. How could she prioritize her image over the clear supernatural? Surely easier said than done, but... "I um... I think I may have too..." "The brunette cleared her throat, bashful pink hues branding her face, "I left class early to move the..." Oh, it was getting fairly warm again, "The Zetsu plush... that had showed up in my locker."

The blond rubbed awkwardly at the back of her neck, "I-I didn't recognize the stuffy but..."

"Oh please," the delinquent girl grumbled, leaving the blond to pout silently, "Own up to it, princess. _I_ had that Konan chick in my locker," She blatantly responded, "Next thing I knew, when I skipped first period, my locker went all demonic on me..."

"Oh..!" The golden blond that had just appeared looked around at everyone before holding her Kakuzu plushie high and proud, "We're... Naruto fans here?"

"No," The pale-blond piped up, turning her head stubbornly away. Boy, was she stubborn.

Everyone seemed to ignore her in togetherness, instead shifting their attention to the small black haired girl, silently begging the kind of plushie she had been subjected to. She seemed startled at first, caught off guard by their stares before shifting her gaze away to evade all eye contact and quietly replying, "K-Ki..same..."

"Okay." The delinquent piped up, "So we all got some weird Naruto plushes in our locker, we all got attacked by our locker, we all wound up here."

"I don't know if my stuffed thing was Naruto or-"

"PRINCESS." The dark-eyed girl piped up, hands on her hips and glare intensifying, "You wanna play dumb, you can be left out here to die playing dumb like the rest of us might." She leaned forward, scalding glare intensifying the closer she got, "We don't have room for dead weight."

"D-Dead weight...?! Excuse me!? I-" She snuck a peek at the many of glances cast her way before bashfully throwing her gaze aside, "T-tsk... It was..." She raised her finger, motioning to her face in a circular gesture while quietly murmuring, "T...Tobi..."

"Finally," The delinquent girl breathed out.

"You didn't have to be so rough..." Amber murmured quietly, but immediately was met with confrontation from the girl in question, "What'd you say?" Amber hastily responded with a shake of her head, "N-nothing!"

"I think before we go anywhere else, we should learn everyone's name!" The golden-blond was at it again, taking over the role of leader that they all seemed to crave, "The more we know each other, the more we'll care about each other, right? And right now, I think we need to care about each other to handle this well." She was an optimistic ray, not exactly bothered by the situation like she should have been, almost as if it provided more of an entertaining obstacle to her, rather than a fearsome trial. She even was able to ignore the simuntaneous rolls of eyes and slights in stance that mocked her cheerful demeanor, responding with yet another opening into the task everyone else was too dismissive to participate in, "I'm Molly, but... everyone just calls me Mini."

The group hesitantly began to pipe up, taking turns sharing their names.

The 'princess' was Hailey, the small black haired girl was called Skye, and of course, there was Amber.

The delinquent girl leaned her head to the side, raising her shoulder as her neck let loose a joint popping noise that left Hailey roughly shuddering.

"Name's Lisa." The girl replied, immediately sparking an interest in Amber's eyes.

So that was the girl that had gone missing... How much longer had she been here than her..? "The... Principal said you went missing all the time... Do you always come here?"

Lisa's brow furrowed, "Well, sure if that were the case I'd know where I was." She scoffed, shaking her head, but she couldn't hide the grin that was creeping across her face, "Old Michael probably said that 'cause I skip so much..."

"Yes, yes," Hailey interjected, "Good for you, but I think what's important now is that we find someplace with someone that can help us."

"First thing's first!" Molly began, "I don't think we should split up. We don't know this place so well, so if someone gets lost, it could be dangerous." She raised a dutiful finger that bearly poked out from her sleeve, "We should travel as a group! It seems like a pretty big forest.. It can't be _completely_ empty, right?"

"It could..." Amber clarified, but only to herself, not willing to take the leader role herself, and instead more content following the group, even if led by a tiny girl that seemingly had the self-preservation of a blade of grass.

With no one exactly willing to take the lead, they all filed under the charismatic Molly, and despite their occasional drawls and complaints... their efforts were rewarded.

"A house...?" Hailey inquired, inspecting it curiously with her index to her lip, "So we navigate a forest for a couple of hours and happen to stumble across a house..."

"Quit complaining!" Lisa shot, hopping up to the door and peering in through the windows, "It's a place to rest!"

"I'm not... complaining..." The blond wound her fingers in through her straight, pale locks, "Just... It seems too good to be true..? I could name a quick five fairytales that begin with a house in the woods and end in a tragedy..."

"If it makes you feel any better..." Lisa trailed, "I'd let you die for me." Her joke didn't seem to go over well, not that she cared. She was too busy trying to peek into the living space and get an idea of what one could be expecting. "Guys, I think it's empty."

"We shouldn't.. break into someone's house," Amber finally found the courage to say. They were tired, sure, but enough to break into someone's house to rest..?"

"I'm sure they'll understand," Lisa scoffed, immediately picking the door open with a chewed hairpin from her vest pocket.

"That we were dragged into our lockers and wound up here?" Hailey bundled her hands in towards her chest, but it didn't stop her from following Lisa inside, "They'll have us killed... Or worse...! D-Do you know what kinds of dangers follow beautiful girls like me..?"

"Nnnope..." Lisa peered around the place, assessing the stove and kitchen areas.

"Guys!" Molly called, a small frown on her face, "I dunno if this is a good idea..! G-guys!" She hopped up to follow the two inside, soon trailed by Amber and Skye who wanted anything but to be left alone in this unfamiliar place.

As Amber's foot hit the floorboard last, the door shut behind them, leaving the group with a surge of dis-ease spreading through their chests.

"Oi."

The abrupt presence of a male's voice left the group stalled in their places, staring through a tension-filled room that could hardly support their needs to breathe.

A silver haired male stepped into the room, mouth agape and head tipped back for a yawn that dragged on much louder and longer than it needed, "Kakuzu, you back already?" He dragged his fingers through his eyes, blinking the lazy sleep from them a few times before his magenta irises locked onto the five at hand, "What the fuck?"

After a brief stare down, there came a chorus of screams and patter of feet as they all rushed to the door, delaying their escape with the way each one reached ahead of another as each of them made a grab for the door knob.

"Let the fuck go!" Lisa squawked, only to have Hailey respond with a quick, "I have the door! I can open it, just let go!"

"SOMEONE open it!" Molly squeaked, retracting her own hand to make the panicked hot-potato faster to decide.

As soon as they managed to tug the door open, it was shut back hastily by the blades of a scythe tearing through the wood of the door with a blunt, careless swing that hooked the door in place with the wall.

"Not so fast," His rage and confusion seemed to be prominent at first, but the ideas that crept into the male's head made the two previous emotions boil down into nothing short of a sadistic excitement, "Heh."

* * *

 _A.N: Well. That's the end of the story. Everyone's dead: The End._

 _Haaaaa. No, not really._

 _But feel free to assume whatever you like!_


	3. Chapter 3: Run-In With Disaster

**Chapter 3: Run-In With Disaster**

The five stared at the scythe in the wall, all of their eyes bugging out save for one, skeptical Amber. She slowly turned to peer over her shoulder during the lingering pause. Her heart was racing, her breaths quickening, and she could just feel the quivering of her body that felt as if it were roughly rocking her entire form from the fear and adrenaline encompassing her.

A silver haired man... Albeit not the neat slick-back they were all used to seeing. Piercing magenta eyes, and a triple-bladed scythe. A Zetsu plushie..? Akatsuki plushes.

' _No. No... That doesn't just happen. This isn't...'_

A house? That was taboo number one. The Akatsuki members didn't congregate in a house, they joined up rarely in physical form and presently at a cave in the desert. She could scold herself for remembering this, but it would save her life - Multiple lives even. It didn't matter.

Everything couldn't fall into place like some sort of self-insert. Not like...

Her cheeks burned at the thought - _Amber's Adventures._

When her vision returned from a glazed over daydream, she could feel a rough pull on her bicep, followed by a scolding, "Move, you idiot!"

The scythe was still sealed in place, but Hidan had made a forward lunge for them, sending them scrambling in different directions. Luckily, Lisa had been good enough under the pressure and quickness of the situation that she had managed to pull Amber along with her.

Now with everyone spread out to different walls of the room, the Akaktsuki psychopath seemed to look out at all of them, deciding which to attack first. He was like some sort of predator, picking out the weakest link.

Molly, sensing this -as her leadership qualities would have it-, stuck close to Skye, the latter shaking like a newborn fawn.

The pause only existed for a moment.

Murderous intent was radiating from this Hidan-like man, his eyes searching and flickering at an inhuman pace: judging, preying eyes. His lips part to the tune of a quiet , "Huhuhu..." cackling that sent a jagged chill through the mood of the room, only to be followed by an equally creepy motion of his tongue over his lips that bared the sharp edge of his fang.

His back foot shifted in a fraction of a second - too fast for their untrained eyes to follow. No one could even make a guess at what direction he would be moving in until he was set to move towards the smallest two: Molly and Skye.

"H-hold on!" Hailey spoke up quickly, taking a step forward.

The silver haired male paused, his hand literally hovering only a fraction of an inch in front of Molly's face. Though pale blue eyes wide, she dared not move, lest it only take a moment for his large hand to take hold. She froze.

His head leaned back, surged with a sense of bemusement and boredom taking hold as he turned to look over his shoulder at the blond. "Hn?"

Hailey had only spoke out at what seemed like a forced reaction. She didn't actually have a plan. If not for the adrenaline-induced tunnel-vision she was facing, she probably may have noticed the way her knees were knocking together. Her arms were crossed over one another, fingers clutching at the fabric of her baby blue dress. "I-I..." Her voice was shaking and eventually, within the stammer of her only word, it broke.

The silence seemed to irritate him just as much as the hesitance, so impatient as he was, he turned away from Molly, grin widening. "Oho..." And he began to approach, "You wanna be first?" His hand shot out, bypassing the fighting pushes from her own hands with ease as it fastened around Hailey's neck. It was just placed there at first, but slowly began to apply a little pressure: just a little.

"Hnnn..." He looked distastefully, applying a little more of a squeeze while her prying hands fought the grip, "You're pretty fragile, ain't ya?" he wasn't even giving any effort, and he could already feel the way her neck bowed under his grip.

That was disappointing.

"You won't last long.. What a fucking bore..." He shook her around a bit, but picking up with seemingly enhanced senses, his magenta eyes slid to their corners, catching Molly in the process of moving, "Oi. Sit still and wait you're turn, ah?" He constricted, causing a sharp, wheeze-like inhale from Hailey that halted movement. He was aware he had their fear building, and they were too afraid of moving or causing another of their's to die. Wasn't that how all people were? He could only think of the word 'pathetic', but he wasn't one to complain about a delivered game.

"We didn't mean to come here..!" Molly tried to speak up, waving her hands, "W-we can just leave and-"

"Nahhh..." He constricted again, nonchalantly watching Hailey's attempts to fight for air with a sickeningly amused grin, "Too late for that..."

The princess shot out a high pitched whine that came with rasping airways fighting to get any kind of air into her brain. Everything was getting hazy... she couldn't...

"Hidan!"

The grip loosened momentarily, Hailey's sharp, plentiful intakes beginning to sound vaguely like pitiful, pained sobs. He'd dropped her. And without the strength or togetherness to pull herself together, she sank to her knees.

"Came here by accident... hah?" The look in his eyes was darker now, laced with a malicious interest that had evaded his simply sadistic gaze before. How could they have come here by accident, then blatantly use his name? That little one specifically - Molly. He glowered down at her , eyes piercing and grin growing. Then he'd kill them - by accident. _He just didn't know how fragile they were._ A likely story, not that he needed one.

Molly shuddered. She'd realized a mistake was made, but then... the way he responded - it.. Did he- She didn't have time to think before his looming shadow had grown close again. It was like a game of _who first_ with the way he found pleasure in reducing them all one by one.

But whether lucky for them or unlucky for Hailey, the pinned front door was forcibly opened - or more, ripped from its hinges.

"Hidan."

This voice was none of the girls'. It was deeper, almost monotonous in a sense, and darkly commanding.

Hidan halted. He looked up with a dully disinterested expression, then immediately the look fell into boredom. "Oh. It's you." He looked at the orange haired male whose face was littered with piercings that only aided in making him appear dark and intimidating.

By now, four of the five girls watched on with looks of panic, and confusion, staring fixated on the two and praying for a better outcome than the certain deaths that would have followed them before.

The figure bearing a scarring resemblance to Pein of the Akatsuki looked at them all, never furrowing a brow nor changing his expression in any way. It was unnerving. Thankfully, however, he was rational. Unlike the rash Hidan, he took the time to assess and conclude as one was meant to. "Who are these girls?"

"They broke in, Pein," He snappily replied, "That's what I was _doing_ before you stopped me."

Pein took a look at their terrified faces, but it didn't stop there. He noticed the way Haily was coughing and hacking from her hands and knees, how each member had masked themselves in a corner, and more importantly, the way each of them was dressed. They were clearly not comparable to any sort of ninja, samurai, or possibly anyone with training, and having to pull the door aloose from the scythe wedged in it discredited any possible tales of self-defensive heroism. Besides, when would he ever believe such a tale from Hidan.

"I'll handle it from here."

Hidan's hands raised up confrontationally, eyes widening with distaste, "What?! But I was just gonna-"

"Hidan." This time, rather than with no change at all, Pein's eyes narrowed sharply at the male, "I said. I'll handle it from here."

The silver haired male wrinkled his nose in disgust, standing up from his hunch to his full height. He passed Pein by, eyes flickering in the leader's general direction to let his displeasure be known, but he dared not bump him or anything else people are known to do physically at times like that. Instead, he located the detached door, planting his foot on it and snatching his scythe out of the wood, before proceeding deeper into the forest.

' _Probably to go butcher something...'_ Lisa thought in a mental grumble, seeing him exit via gazing through the window.

"You five." Pein called their attention to him without complaint, his aura alone enough to lock their eyes on him. "Follow me."

"Can't.. you just let us go..?" Amber question softly, seemingly to herself, though she instantly knew it was too loud, when she got his eyes peering directly at her. She stiffened, shuddering as she found herself unable to avoid eye-contact, only breathing after he had turned away.

"Christ, Princess. You're such a liability," Lisa grumbled, yanking Hailey's arm around her shoulders, "Maybe next time you should just keep your mouth shut."

Hailey's lips part to argue, but she couldn't find the nerve nor the wind in her to do it, and merely dropped her head.

"It's a miracle.." Lisa whispered mockingly.

* * *

 _A.N. Ahhh! Just a short chapter to tie up the loose ends of before._

 _But as you can see. The Akatsuki plays no games. There was no time to even think "are you the akatsuki"? nah. If you've got self-preservation better than Molly, then you'd better know it._

 _Hopefully they can come to a better thought process after they've settled down._

 _THANK YOU FOR READING!_

 _Do you wanna be called Desires, followers? ...That may sound a little dangerous._

 _OKAY SCRATCH THAT. Give me your ideas instead, because i'm clearly bad at this_


	4. Chapter 4: A Sealed Fate

It had been about a half-hour since Pein had dramatically let himself inside, and single-handedly defused the situation, saved their lives, and ordered them to _"follow me",_ and yet nothing particularly helpful had come from it. In fact, they hadn't had the opportunity to speak to him at all, rather he had entered his study to speak to someone else, while the five of them were ordered into a bedroom across the way.

Now that they had some time alone behind a slightly closed door, however, it was time to get down to business. They had been tossing ideas around after warming themselves up through the first 10 minutes of repetitive awkwardness and unfamiliarity.

"So, are we seriously going with _cosplayers_?" For some reason, Lisa seemed just as hesitant about that idea as Amber. They were going to agree that some average teenagers and adults had dressed up as an anime-based criminal organization and kidnap them in their small woodland cottage?

"What part of this makes sense?" Lisa questioned again. By this point, she was hunkered forward in a position of the worst posture, arms draped overtop of her knees and a lazily concerned expression.

"That doesn't sound very possible, does it? The way he moved was totally to scary for some average _anything..._ " Hailey spoke up. She sat with one leg crossed over the other, and had luckily recovered enough to be able to speak again, though there was still a slight rasp in her voice that seemed pained and hoarse. Not only that, but she had been fortunate enough to also leave the scrape with a wonderful red handprint around her neck and down her chest, "But whatever it is..!"

Her sudden burst of determination appeared to capture the group's attention.

"...They're seriously going to pay for this!" Her eyes burst with a lively fire, her fists tightly clenched until her manicured nails were digging into her palms, "Who knows if this'll leave a nasty bruise! Then I won't be able to wear V-necks for who-knows-how-long!"

Immediately the interest of the room waned to a replacent air of disappointment.

"You maybe should be more concerned with whether or not you live," Lisa scoffed, shaking her head irritably.

"Oh, I will live. I'll-" her face lit up, her digging into her shirt to till around through her chest area.

"Okay, Princess, you don't have to get all exposed," The delinquent shot, hand lifting to urge Hailey's actions to a minimum.

Instead, however, the blond continued to rummage, eventually coming to a bright, vivid pink phone that she had kept in in place there. "Here, here! I'm surprised no one else thought of this!" She pressed the button of her phone, looking down to her screen to fine a large red "X" up by the signal bar.

Her accomplished expression drooped into a clear disappointment, "Well... That's not what I was hoping for... What are we too out in the woods?"

"I'm sure most phones would at least show you have _something_ ," Amber began, digging around to find that her own phone was left back at school in her handbag. Her brown eyes were shot, life draining as she sighed quietly. That was a bust.

Everyone spent the next few minutes checking around for their phones, only to come to the same hope-dashing conclusion. Service was completely unheard of.

"Hah," Lisa began to quietly snicker to herself before breaking out into a full laugh, "This...Pfft..." She grinned widely, throwing her head back into her hands that rested behind it with a full on laugh, "This is freaking ridiculous..." Clearly she only laughed out of only the attempt to keep her panic in check. If one were to look closely enough, they could even see the corner of her lips begin to twitch and falter.

Luckily, however, it wasn't allowed to break just yet.

The door was pushed open gently, and a dark indigo-haired woman took her place in the doorway. She looked over them with the most dull yet piercing orange eyes, taking a seemingly fixed time to glance at each of them individually before speaking with the utmost stoicism, "The Leader will see you now."

Without an instruction to follow or otherwise moment wasted, she began to walk away, expecting them to trot after, which they were sure to.

They came to the door to the study wide and open to show... Well, that it was exactly what they expected the _study_ to look like. It was relatively ordinary: a desk placed in the center of the room with stacks of paperwork at the corner all neatly pinned together with a paper clip, pens neatly organized at the other corner, bookshelves and a chair in which Pein sat, fingers intertwined and chin rested just behind them.

He lowered his hands as he witnessed the girls enter, scooting up closer to his desk as he offered each one of them more of a stern expression, "Before attempting to explain anything, I want to know why you're here." He really didn't waste any time, did he?

Though he did make quite the fatal mistake amongst them.

He never pointed out anyone in particular, nor locked eyes with anyone individually. As a result, they all sort of quietly looked around, that is, until Lisa blatantly spoke up.

"Not a damn clue," She shot, burying her hands deep into the pockets of her shorts, "Y'wanna know what happened?" She shot. It appeared she was getting a bit aggressive, her whole dismissively amused demeanor up until this point beginning to break apart with clear disdain for the way in which things were dragging on, "I was skipping class, and I stopped by my locker to grab my spare pass book and wound up in the middle of the goddamn woods."

Pein listened on, not concerned about her offending or forward nature in the slightest. His gray, ringed eyes, watched her with intent, but as her coarse explanation went on, it only seemed to paint him to be more and more lost. What did this have to do with them winding up in the hideout? It all seemed like it was missing a big chunk of information.

Molly stepped up, sleeved hands pressing their submerged palms together whilst her large, pleading blue eyes looked to the leader. She had nothing else to go on, and from the way Lisa only seemed to grow more and more enraged by his minimally expressed confusion, the little blond had taken it upon herself to try using the half-baked conclusion they had sought out moments ago.

"If you are just cosplayers playing a joke," she began, looking both to the 'Konan' woman, and the Pein just affront her, "please just let us go. We have to get back, some of us have things we really have to do."

"Agreed!" Hailey piped up, stomping her heeled foot, "I'm a busy girl!"

"The story did little to explain why you're here," Despite his expression keeping the same monotonous touch that it had had throughout the entirety of the conversation, it could be seen that he was quite as in the dark as they were.

"That's what _we_ wanna _know_!" Lisa growled through grit teeth.

Thanks to the hot-tempered delinquent in the room, Molly could feel the pressure, her leader-like tendencies beginning to falter ever-so-slightly, though she continued to attempt her play at middle-man.

If things were playing out like a fanfiction...

...Well, she would just have to play along like a fanfiction, right?

Her hands clasped together, once more the pleading little girl she appeared to be beginning to push its way into her expression, "Please!" She approached the desk carefully, keeping a fair amount of space between them, "This may sound outlandish... But..! We're from a place called America." If this played out like she had hoped... then he would-

"America?" He questioned, guard up and caution setting in with the idea that they were either trying something, or ready to give him a ridiculous answer to only confuse him further.

Molly's heart skipped a beat. He really did it. Okay, then she could only just push on, couldn't she? "Mhm..! In... America..." She couldn't tell them that they didn't exist, though. That would be too much of a step, and to centralize this potential idea upon the adventure of an Akatsuki suffering from an existential crisis was probably a little too much for the five of them.

"You guys are _really_ popular," She rationalized, "People watch you on TV, and read about you in books..! And...hey-wait." Her hands slid around her person, and as she searched herself, she took a glance back to meet with the mixed expressions of the girls behind her. While the nervous of scared expressions of the majority encouraged her to press on, she couldn't help but feel completely unnerved by the enraged and impatient Lisa just at the corner of her eye.

Luckily, her blue-eyed gaze didn't rest there for long before she was able to find what she had searched for. In her hand, she lifted up the Kakuzu plushie towards Pein, "See? They sell merchandise of you..!"

She was half-expecting the man to break character and laugh at her for playing along. To be honest, she would have been grateful for it, and happy that she could rationalize normally with an every-day person. But, as she knew in the pit of her unsettled stomach, that moment never came.

The man was deathly serious, hand reaching out to take the plush into his manicured hands. His ringed eyes stared at it for a long while, all the way down to the manufactured stitchwork. It was a lot to take in, surely.

A whole world where people freely knew of and discussed the supposedly _secret_ criminal organization.

His eyes rose after a moment to the blatant scoff of, "Can we _go_ now?" From Lisa, no less.

He looked at each individual girl, and in the moment hope began to set in again, he wasted not a second dashing it just as before, "No. I need to know first, where this _America_ is found."

Lisa could be seen in the background, spinning around out of an exasperated distress, her hand clasped over eyes with her thumb and middle finger pressed firmly against her aching temples.

"We..." Molly's lips slid to the side, canine teeth biting into the lower one just slightly, "we can't exactly... show you where th-"

"He didn't ask to show 'em!" Lisa piped up, slamming her hands onto the desk roughly. Though Konan seemed to take a turn for disdain, Pein remained unchanged, "Listen up, _Pein_." She shot snidely, "Take a boat all the way down to the South as far as you can, and when you get there, take a right at Hell, n'kay?"

Just before the conversation was about to go further, the door was roughly pushed open, "Oi!" One could hear a rather nasally voice bellow, before a proud blond let himself in, "Leader, I-" His only visible eye shifted quickly. He had only wished he'd been vigilant before. His brow furrowed, and immediately as if relaxing back into a battle-esque persona, his shoulder lowered and demeanor took a complete shift, "Something happening hm..?"

The pierced man rubbed his fingers against his temples, eyes opening slowly, "Yes. Hidan was supposed to be out there to keep you from interrupting."

"Eh?" The male shoved his hands into the sleeves of the Akatsuki cloak, stance changing more into a challenging lean, "Dunno where he went off to then, because I didn't see him anywhere yeah."

The voices were too spot on, the mannerisms perfect.

Amber found herself eyeing the blond male, eyes possibly a bit too wide, and stare maybe a bit too intense, but it just seemed that when another person from the ' _Underground Akatsuki Cult'_ appeared, he was just as spot-on accurate as the first. Wasn't it nearly impossible to find such physically exact cosplayers? Not to mention locating a Deidara cosplayer that was actually male.

As his sharp blue eyes met her own, she quickly looked away, shaking the thoughts from her head.

"Nevermind that - there's something I want you to do for me."

* * *

With the girls now disbanded, Amber trailed up the hallway behind the Deidara-like male who seemed to be assisting a Tobi one with moving a mattress.

The brunette followed closely at their rear, but far enough away to offer them quite enough space (not just for herself, but also due to the way the Tobi male seemed to lose himself in his zany antics). There was just so much to think about. The five girls were apparently now being sentenced to a potential lifetime here with these apparent Akatsuki-clad kidnappers.

The scariest part?

With no connection to the outside world, and no physical strength to combat the clearly strong brutes that hung around the place, it was seeming impossible to escape.

Was this like one of those love-stories? Did they gave to gain their favor to be set free?

Amber felt her fingers clutch at her shirt, lips upturned into a faltering pout as the heat began to filter into her cheeks. What a ridiculous idea - those kind of things didn't happen in real life, especially not to someone of below-average attractiveness.

The poke of abrupt self-loathing left her with a dark twinge of visible depression beneath her eye. Just as she went to sigh, her breath caught in her throat when she heard the internal shouting she had become verbalized by another.

"TOBI." Deidara shouted loudly, gritting his teeth, "What the Hell did I just say, hm?!"

"Hah?" Tobi peered over, peeking meekly around the mattress, then looking up to think about the idea more deeply, "Gee, Deidara, I'm not sure... Ahh... Maybe I just wasn't listen-" Within the next moment, the blond shoved his foot onto the mattress, sending the masked boy sliding down the hallway forcefully along with it, "Ah!" In a knotted mess on the floor, he looked up at the blond upside down, "At least you didn't blow me up this time, hah?"

Amber stood in the hallway, watching as Deidara moved the mattress into her room with a stare of apparent horror. Deidara, however, merely used the poor boy's face as a door mat, focusing solely on completing the task at hand.

Of course the little bit was amusing, if not - actually pretty funny. In fact, remembering from the anime, the brunette may have almost laughed. That wasn't at all what had caused the stare of frozen terror upon her face. No, it was something she saw briefly only, in passing, when her eyes had caught the clip of a tongue flailing from the blond's hand as it pushed off of the mattress, leaving her in utter shock.

"Hey hey!" Tobi waved to her, half of his body hanging out of the bedroom. In that time he had managed to get himself together? She must have been zoning out for quite a little while, "C'mon in! The bedroom's fine!"

His chipper attitude brought Amber briefly back to reality, and swallowing hard, she abided.

* * *

 **A/N: Hello everyone! Good to see my little Sweets again~! ...Nah.**

 **My little...**

 **Cupcakes?**

 **What the Hell to people desire?**

 **Either way! I'm so glad to be back. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season and are gearing up to have a super great New Year!**

 **The season's been so busy lately! I'm glad I had a chance to write this up!**

 **I hope you all enjoy, my sweets! ...Maybe.**


	5. Chapter 5: Adjustments

So these were to be their living arrangements..? A mattress wedged between two others in a barely-large-enough room between two other Akatsuki-clad strangers? It was hardly hospitable, though they were most-likely not expecting hospitality, and the Akatsuki, not expecting guests.

Still, Amber, felt, in the midst of the late afternoon, she would have felt far more comfortable with the swirly-masked idiot than a calculating red-head.

She, from in the upper middle of her small mattress, had her arms wrapped tightly around her legs, and her chin resting against the top of her knees. It hadn't been long since she had been given the accommodations in the room, and since sitting down, she hadn't moved from her current perch. Far too much on her mind for that.

Her brown eyes slowly slid over to her left to the tinkering redhead.

 _'That's... Sasori, isn't it?'_

He was keeping himself busy with something sprawled out on a desk in front of him. From the draping black cover that fell over it, it was impossible to make out just what he was working on, and quite frankly, with the vague memory of his interest in puppets, she wouldn't be one to ask.

' _But...'_

Her brow furrowed deeply. Wasn't he not supposed to be around at the same time as Tobi? She was far from certain on that detail, but at the same time, she was pretty sure that was correct. There could only be 10 members at a time, right? It was something that left her doubting the validity of this all, and yet, as much as her mind wanted to fabricate how real the lashing tongues on Deidara's hand looked, the image was too clear to disagree with.

Her fingers rose up past her forehead, gliding into her hair as she shut her eyes to her unsightly thoughts and uttered a soft sigh. Suddenly she had a pulsing headache.

Too scared to speak, and too scared to move too much, she only remained in that spot. In the moment she began to try relaxing her mind, her body followed, and a demanding sound rang out from her stomach.

Her cheeks flushed, and immediately, her eyes darted up to check between the two present members.

Without ever turning, nor looking up, the redhead spoke up, "Handle that." Though Amber was a bit confused, it became clear within a moment that he was speaking to Deidara when the blond abruptly piped up.

"What? Why me, hm?" His visible eye grew lazy and bland with a challenging huff, "You know I'm busy too, right, hmmm?"

The brunette's thumb eased to her lower lip as she looked back and forth between them, unwilling to speak up, and yet... Had she just completely forgotten how cute that impediment of his was? The nasal sound or constant questioning huff at the ends of his sentences was always something she had been fond of as a watcher, she recalled. Was she staring? Her previous embarrassment now fell into a deepened display of red by her sudden recollection.

' _What am I saying?'_ She thought, palm rubbing against her throbbing head. She wasn't falling back into that - not now. Why would an apparent _hostage_ situation trigger a fondness anyhow? - it was just plain unhealthy.

"Are you coming or not hm?" The blond irritably questioned, arms folded as he looked down upon the seated blond from his vantage point directly in front of the bottom edge of her mattress.

"Huh?" Oh. It looked like he had lost the little argument. Amber let herself up from her place on the bed, sliding to the edge to do so and meekly keeping her gaze away from his. As they walked, she watched him. He walked so proudly: chin up and long strides despite his relatively light steps. And his hair... It was a bright yellow, like a golden blond so vivid that it shouldn't have existed - but the higher she climbed the strands, the more she could see that it was really his hair, not dyed or anything... So the ponytail.

Her head jerked back, face souring with a look of skeptical wonder, ' _So his hair just naturally defies gravity that way..?'_ Why were things beginning to look so much more real. The more she tried to tell herself it wasn't real, the more she could feel a naggy sinking feeling in her stomach that told her otherwise.

As her eyes began to lower towards her feet, the corner of her eye snagged a look at something through a cracked door.

That was Molly right? She paused for a moment, peeking in what she had hoped was more of an inconspicuous manner.

"Fuckin' weird..."

Poor Molly had gotten stuck with that silver haired menace that was Hidan. She frowned slightly. Certainly she didn't know the girl that wall, and while it was probably wrong to say 'I'm glad it's not me', she would be lying if the thought hadn't crossed her mind.

The little blond had her Kakuzu plushie firmly between her hands, settled in her lap.

"She's got a fucking thing of you," Hidan began again, motioning to the plushie, then to Kakuzu, "That doesn't bother you?"

Kakuzu, being as he always seemed to be, remained absolutely silent and read over what appeared to be a stack of papers.

"Oi!" The silver haired male piped up again. He draped his somewhat bulky arm over top of his knee, wrinkling his lips up into a disdainful pout, "Don't ignore me, damn it!" Though, despite his demands, he continued to be ignored. So giving up receiving a response from his senior partner, he turned his attention back to the small blond, merely staring at her with squinted, antagonizing eyes.

The blond never looked up, though when she did, her large blue eyes met his magenta ones in a calm fashion, batting them slightly in realization that she was being watched, "Huh..?"

That was the one that had thwarted his fun early on - the little leader, huh? Hidan had recognized her well, and an intimidating disdain rang out from his demeanor, only for Molly to obliviously respond with a tip of her head. The action only irritated him further, and whether purposely or reactively, he puffed up like an animal trying to make themselves look bigger.

"..Are... you okay..?"

"TSK." He snatched his head away, "Shut the Hell up."

Why did that fill Amber with a small sense of pride? At least it was a good match - or at least good enough for him to get what he deserved for those Hellish acts.

Her curiosity getting the best of her, she seemed to forget about the task at hand, easing over to another door to peek inside. She could hear it was Hailey's room - her voice carried the moment you got close to the door.

"Can you believe him?" Hailey drawled, fingers grazing over the bruise that had begin to darken into an ugly faded plum against her skin. "He's a tremendously rude brute in _dire_ need of anger management!" She flipped her hair over her shoulder, looking up with pout in tow, "I honestly don't know how the two of you handle him."

Despite the way she had gone on and on, she had seemed to pay little mind to the fact that the shark-like Kisame only seemed to pass halfway attentive glances whilst the stoic Uchiha on the other side of her had been paying more or less no attention at all.

Still - she just seemed satisfied to be able to vent.

"Ahem."

Amber, very gentle and barely existent smile on her face, looked up from the door, all remnants of that bliss dropping instantly. The blond's brow arched high, foot tapping, "Hurry it up hm. Some of us have things to get back to." A nasally huff sounded after that almost appeared to be a stuck up 'hmph' effect, before he turned on his heel and continued to walk, shrugging his shoulder to usher Amber into following, which she did.

Upon coming to the outside, she could notice that the kitchen area was much more pleasant a place than she had expected - much more... normal.

There were so many red flags raising but all she could think about at the moment were the hunger pangs that had probably been stifled for as long as the whole ordeal had taken place.

Skye looked up from the counter, apparently having also been escorted out by Tobi - who on Earth would trust him with anything at all whatsoever was quite-frankly beyond Amber. What was much more obvious, however, seemed to be the look of clear exasperation and disdain that immediately took over Deidara's face, all of it clearly sincere.

"Oh! Deidara!" Tobi chimed, waving his hand dramatically, flicking the batter that covered it in each direction, though as luck would have it -or lack thereof-, the majority spattering on different portions of Deidara's face.

A large anger tick rose up on the blond's forehead, a grumble coming from under his breath, "What the Hell are you doing out here hm?"

"Oh oh! Well. Skye got hungry!" He motioned most dramatically to the timid girl that appeared to flinch away from his erratic motions, "So Mister Zetsu thought it would be a good idea that I come out here and find her something to eat! There was some batter from sweets, so I decided I'd make those!" He fished around the counter, holding up a plate of blackened...circles?

Amber could feel the dark circles starting under her eyes. The batter smelled so sweet, but the finished product looked about as edible as a piece of charcoal. Actually... It probably _was_ a piece of charcoal.

"The bat..." The blond's words died on his tongue. He took much heavier strides to the refrigerator, snatching it open to check around for something. Then, the anger point at his forehead only seemed to swell larger, eyes devoid of color with a white rage, " _IS THAT MINE HMM?"_

To the sound of what came out like a darkened growl rather than a nasally huff, Skye slowly began to lower behind the counter, eyes swelling in horror.

"Ha..Haha. H-Hang on now, Deidara - I still have more, I could make a better batch you kno-"

From the outside of the home, one could hear the sound of an explosion that blew out a portion of the right-hand frame of the house.

On the inside, as the dust began to clear through coughs and white, one could see Tobi's legs breached out from a hole in the ceiling, kicking and squirming. "Ignore 'em." Deidara so bluntly put, scoffing under his breath as he waved the two girls off, lashing tongue still dotted with bits of what appeared to be white clay, "Hurry up and eat, yeah."

The two girls looked slowly down to the plate of blackened coal and wood-filled batter all pinned under large chunks of fallen debris, pitiful faces sinking as their stomachs growled.

What were they supposed to do?

Was it okay to cook in these strangers' kitchen..?

The brunette, seeing Skye hopeless, made her way slowly over to the fridge, opening it hesitantly and peering inside.

There were things they could make, she supposed..? There were eggs and there was milk, and some other basic ingredients. Hesitantly, her hands collected some of them and she retreated back to the counter. Worth a shot right? As long as Deidara wasn't too irritated with her possibly taking too much time. She peered across the way, chocolate eyes falling upon the blond sitting at the table with his cheek resting against the back of his hand.

Well - he was watching their every move.

' _Isn't that comforting...'_ Amber thought dryly, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip.

"Do you... Ah... need me to help at all..?" Skye offered quietly, nearly drowned out over the sound of Tobi's pleading and struggling. Her blue eyes kept shifting up to the dangling legs far overhead.

Quite frankly... Amber liked doing a lot of things by herself - she just found that it was more efficient that way, but with Skye meekly seeming to work up the courage to ask in the first place, she felt it would almost be a disservice for her to say no. The brunette looked away ever-so-slightly, lips twisting into a thoughtful frown, "Ah...Yeah, sure."

It was... hard to focus, really. The chaotic atmosphere wasn't even the half of it. With such a busy mind, making it pinpoint on one thing was a hassle at that point. To be honest... she just felt exhausted.

Her hand reached out in the midst of the cooking, hand brushing Skye's for a moment. Her brown eyes caught sight of the smaller girl's very tiny hand - not only was she pale, but her hand seemed to be shaking a great deal, not as if unsteady, but in a bit of an unnatural way. Was she that scared?

Amber passed a hesitant glance in her direction to find the black haired girl had retracted her hand, holding it close to her chest. Was it her place to ask..? Well, with the five of them there in this new environment, they had to start taking care of each other. It wasn't guaranteed that anyone else would, but as she opened her mouth to speak, her words were cut off.

"So that's what that noise was," Lisa began, hands resting on her hips as she appraised the damage dealt by the idiotic masked boy. "How the Hell did that happen?"

"Honestly," Amber spoke up surprisingly quick, shaking her head wearily, "I'm sure it's exactly what you think."

The dark haired 'delinquent' passed a glance up, then over to Deidara before her dark eyes traveled back to Amber, only to be offered a nod that informed her that her apparent suspicion was indeed correct. The pierced girl shut her eyes, heaving a heavy sigh and favoring the idea to just ignore it, "Whatcha guys cookin'?"

"What are you doing out here without supervision hm..?" Deidara spoke up to Lisa, tipping his head back and furrowing a brow. Was he seriously the only one that was in favor of handling his job with care?

But then, that Lisa was being supervised by Pein and Konan, so he hadn't much room to complain.

"Said I didn't need to be hovered over," She put bluntly, peering onto the counter, then directing her attention to the pile of removed debris off on the outer edge of the countertops.

The blond furrowed a brow, glancing off to the side. Didn't need supervision? Well, Hell, if that was the case. He let himself up, stretching, "Then you know where to find me if you need me yeah." He only offered one precautionary glance before returning down the hall.

"You got that lucky?" Amber spoke up after a few moments, heating up the stove, "I don't see that they would just let us wander and do what we please."

"Well, put it this way," Lisa sat up on the counter, crossing one leg over the other, "If they're-" Her eyes traveled up to the now limp legs of Tobi overhead before she lowered her tone into what was barely even a whisper, "If they're the real deal, I doubt they'll give a damn about us wandering. Not like we can get too far if we run."

"I wasn't expecting giving up from someone like you..." Heaven knows what compelled Amber to speak up that way, perhaps the fatigue or the hunger, or maybe even being convinced that this was all just a dream. But either way, she found it easier than before to make conversation with the rough girl.

Lisa's slightly thick brows furrowed deeply, however, her chin raising up to look down incredulously at the brunette, "What the Hell do you think I am? Stupid? I'm rebellious, sure, but I'm not suicidal."

She had a point. Hailey had gotten the worst of their clear strength, and she was sure Lisa wasn't up for being next.

"You're right..." Amber's eyes grew a bit far away.

What options did they have? Were things really appearing to be just that hopeless? She had reviewed the situation in her head countless times, but it seemed that their outcome just wouldn't change. They were still stuck there, and they had no form of escape. Her arms stiffened as the reality hit her for potentially the fourth time, rising goosebumps coming up along her skin.

"It's whatever, honestly. We're alive - so who cares?" A simplistic outlook from an apparently simplistic Lisa. She plucked a pancake-like pastry from the plate at Amber's side, biting into it and beginning to usher herself on, "My life's not gonna stop just 'cause I'm here."

Amber's brows knit together, eyes staring into the pan in silence. ' _My life's not gonna stop... hah... Is it really that simple..?'_

She looked over to Skye, having forgotten the girl was there for a second. She did have a habit of just disappearing from the atmosphere, didn't she? The black haired girl had her head down, bangs shielding her eyes just slightly from the angle.

"Skye... was your name, right..?"

Skye jolted up in slight surprise, unsteady eyes looking to Amber quickly. Her head dipped into a quick nod. Something seemed off - or... was it just that she was so used to not paying so much attention to her that she didn't realize this was normal?

"Are you okay..?"

Skye nodded rapidly, hands tightly locked together in her lap, "I-I... I'm okay."

Amber slid a plate of the soft pastry over to Skye, refraining from asking anymore questions. Then, as obedient as she was used to being, she informed the smaller girl that she would be returning to her room - the last thing she needed, after all was for the two that she roomed with to be angry with her.

As soon as the brunette had left the room, Skye released a pent-up breath. She bit into the pastry, eating it possibly a bit too fast. Had she not been thorough, she most-likely would have choked. In just moments, she was wiping away bits that had accumulated on and around her lips with the bottom of her palm, plate completely bare. Her fingers ran across her eyes, remaining there for some time along with herself, who remained seated as time passed for a few minutes.

"Hah..." Softly, her breath seemed to grow more stable, and she was able to hop up from her perch, likewise beginning to return down the hall.

The kitchen was vacant-

"Hello..?"

The sound of struggling from the ceiling could be heard once more before Tobi's legs dangled to the tune of his own nervous laughter, "Somebody's in there right..? Anybody going to help me down..? HELLO?"

* * *

 **A/N: POOR TOBI.**

 **But Yes. Things are still deeply in Set-Up Phase. This story is the first time I've written in a really long time, and I'm really rusty... But I hope I'll be able to pull it together.**

 **It's weird. I feel like I'm in this lucid dream state whenever I write. I wish I could get out of that...**

 **Anyway! I hope you enjoyed! Please Read and Review. It's greatly appreciated.**


	6. Chapter 6: Of Faith and Fun

Chapter 6: Of Faith and Fun

So, it was confirmed: Privacy was allowed. The girls were free to roam the forest house as often as they pleased, completely unattended, so long as they didn't wander outside. Something about the lack of ability to protect themselves probably left such a feeble impression that the Akatsuki simply weren't concerned.

While the girls hadn't pushed their luck over the last day- strangers, or not, it was comforting to be in one another's presence.

At this particular moment in the still of the afternoon, they sat in each other's company, a circle formed as they stared intensely across a short, brown coffee table. This time to themselves would be handled with care and attention to detail.

Lisa's sharp, dark eyes watched her own hands, then slowly rose to meet the other girls.

Amber's chocolate eyes shifted about a bit nervously before meeting Lisa's, "Remind me..." The brunette began, looking down at her own hands to evade the intensity of eye contact, "...how did you manage to get your hands on these..?"

"They came with me through the little locker trip," She replied briefly, "Pretty sure if my phone came with, these would too."

"But why did you have them in school..? You know how strict they are there..."

"Look, teacher's pet. I've been caught so much with these that I know just how to stash 'em to where no one'll ever know."

Amber's eyes rose, then after a stilled silence, she peered over her shoulders. Her glances were quick, but cautious, looking to be certain on the whereabouts of their captors. "But... if they see these... Won't they make mention..?"

"Forget about 'em," Lisa immediately piped up, ignoring the mixed looks she received from the other four, "We've got privacy rights, so we can do whatever the Hell we want while they're not around, y'see?" Her posture relaxed into a poor hunker forward, her back appearing as though it would most-likely suffer from the lack of structure. She smirked, even uttering a somewhat haughty snicker beneath her breath, "Besides. They probably don't even know what these are."

"We still probably shouldn't push our luck," Hailey huffed, fingers still grazing the dark hand prints on her neck and chest.

"Screw 'em- Oho..." Lisa's little smirk abruptly began to spread, grow, and eventually form into an almost downright devious grin, "Well would you look at that..." With a flick of her wrist, she dropped one of the 'forbidden items' on the table, uttering with a powerful declaration, "Uno!"

Molly's fists clenched tightly, gripping the sleeves of her jacket in against her palms and puffing her cheeks up, "Aww! I knew I shouldn't have thrown out a red card!"

"Uno~!" Hailey blissfully twittered in tow, dropping her card on the table with a proud smile.

In that moment, Kisame entered the room. He didn't look at them at first, but then, his beady eyes took lock on them with careful consideration. It seemed almost as if he were looking at each one of them to take his head-count.

While most avoided eye contact with him, Hailey raised her hand, flicking her fingers slightly, "Oh, Kisame... Perfect timing, I have a question for you!"

She spoke with a surprising amount of invitation.

' _Are they... On good terms..?'_ Amber thought silently to herself. She couldn't imagine. All she had managed to attain from a night with Sasori and Deidara was an hour-long debate on art gone philosophical and a sleepless night filled with recurring sensations of impending doom... So, a typical night, just with debate.

The shark man approached, leaning his head far off to the left to cause a crack through his neck and subsequent sounds of popping and snapping from his rolling shoulders, "What is it?"

Amber's free hand flopped gently across her upper chest, gripping onto the fabric of her shirt until it bunched between her fingers, ' _Ew...'_ She thought, though made considerable effort not to let her face contort into the disgust that she felt. And did he have to lean across the table that way? Without the cloak of before, there was just... rough, blue skin.. Hadn't they heard of shirts?

"Where is everyone?" Hailey motioned her hand in a round-about circular swipe.

She had a point. Throughout the course of the day, no one in particular had come through the area unless taking a brief look in their direction, and even then, it was scarce.

"You know about us, ah?" He leaned back, folding his arms across his chest as he looked to each of them, "Then you should know we're too busy to wander around this place all day."

Lisa, across the way, seemed to be paying half attention, occasional shifts of her eyes going to Kisame, before darting to the table, back to her hand, and eventually coming full-circle again. "Then maybe you should make your job easier and let us go."

"Mmm..." His gruff, almost gurgling voice dragged on before the thoughtful sound died off quickly in favor of an abrupt, "I don't think so."

"It was expected..." Hailey trailed quietly, watching the shark swordsman walk away.

"I feel... gross." Lisa drawled, sitting up a bit straighter.

Molly leaned up to the table, tipping her head to get a better view of Lisa's face, which seemed, if anything, just more uncomfortable, "Are you sick?"

"Sick as Hell." She replied dryly through the walls of her teeth, "Am I the only one that thought shark looked pretty damn tasty there..?"

"Are...you hungry..?" Molly questioned inquisitively, though the blanching of Lisa in reply showed that was the last thing she was talking about.

"Probably more thirsty than anything else..." The way that last line came out caused Amber's eyes to suddenly pop open at full attention, the medium brown irises slowly sliding over in Hailey's direction, who seemed to meet her with the same mix of confusion and distress.

Amber shot up from her seat, setting down her cards, "Right, well." The brunette pointed towards the kitchen, swiveling on her heel, "I'm going to grab a bite, so I'll just get you something, okay?" Hailey bounced up right behind her, doing the same whilst easing through the legs of the other girls, "I am right behind you!"

"What?!" Lisa popped up from her seat, only keen on digging her hands aggressively in her pockets while glaring after them, "What happened to stick together!?"

"We're still here!" Molly blissfully replied, completely ignorant to the happenings around her.

Lisa's dark eyes shifted to the two 'pipsqueaks' she found herself in the company of, seeing Molly just beaming away as always, and Skye looking away, cheeks aglow, likely from the comments from just a moment ago. "..Deal me in for next hand." She quickly said, dropping the cards on the table and deciding on trailing the other two for a little harassment.

"Wha..." Molly raised the cards, eyes popping white as she flailed her arms quickly through the air, "What happened to sticking together..?!"

"You know, I thought it was important to stick together too..."

The two small girls slowly turned to their sides, seeing Tobi draped over the edge of the couch suddenly. The way his body lied limply screamed melodramatic in a way that very few were able to capture.

"That's good." Molly absent-mindedly chippered, gathering up the cards together, "Hey, Skye, what do you think they're talking about i-"

 _SIGH._

Skye and Molly slowly turned their heads in silence towards the swirly-masked individual that continued to drag out the loud drawl of breath. They waited the full who-knows-how-many seconds until he had finally finished releasing what seemed like every bit of breath in his lungs for that pent up sigh. Then, slowly, as before, Molly began, "So what do you think they're talking about in the ki-"

"Wha- Hey! I'm sighing!" He flailed his arms lively-like, oozing child-like, "So you're supposed to ask ' _What's wrong Tobi?'_ "

Skye slowly sank to peek over the blond's shoulders, leaving Molly to hesitantly beg the question, "Well. What's wrong, Tobi?"

"Oh! I'm glad you asked!" He sanked down into the spot on the couch at their side, crossing his legs to sit criss-cross, "Okay. So. I was all ready to go out on mission today! But when I checked Deidara's room like he told me to - he was already gone! He just left me like that!" He folded his arms, and despite his face being entirely covered, one could clearly make out the deep pout he had on his face beneath the mask, "Can you believe it?!"

"No!" Molly gasped dramatically, leaning forward, "That's so mean!"

"I know!" He dropped his head, looking to his side - wait... did... was that a tear that just fell from his eye hole? "Now what will I do for fun..?"

"..Don't you worry, Tobi!" Molly clenched her fist, setting it against her chest in a way that very tightly resembled the scout salute in Attack on Titan, "We will help you!"

Skye's head shot up, blue eyes bugging with panic, "W-what..?!"

Meanwhile, in the kitchen area, Lisa sat up on the counter, waving her hands in an attempt to plead her case. "Look, think what you want, but it's already been a pretty long time since I've seen some nice muscles. Don't act like you weren't thinking it."

"Was I attracted to the anthro shark?" Amber folded her arms, leaning back straight on the counter, "I can't say so."

"Look, shark man or not, he's pretty good looking. Yeah, princess?"

Hailey looked up from her glass of water, seeming to have been completely ignoring the conversation at hand, "Hm?"

"Okay, whatever." The black haired girl twisted her lips into something akin to a pout, scoffing under her breath, "But I know you guys are thinking about this."

"I'm not." Amber piped up quickly, almost defensively, looking away briskly. She could admit Deidara was a rather attractive fellow, but she wasn't thinking about throwing herself at him like a maniac. Besides - at the end of the day, they were still captives, right? Still, she couldn't help but feel the way her cheeks begin to slightly warm.

Hailey turned her nose up, turning it away briskly, "No." She replied. One would immediately think she was thinking herself too prestigious for a group of cosplayers, or maybe just thinking rationally enough to deny the claim since they were _kidnappers_ as well. Instead, however, she merely shruggered her little shoulders, "I'm a faithful girl with a boyfriend back home. He's probably worried sick.." Her fingers traced her bruised collarbone, frown growing on her face.

"Boyfriends. Euch," Lisa plucked up her glass of water, turning back towards the living room, "I guess so."

The trio returned to the living room, though not far over the threshold, they came to an abrupt, collective pause, staring at the chaos that was taking place before their eyes.

"OUR ENEMIES ARE BEFORE US!" Molly declared, blond hair covering an eye, pointing a finger in the three's direction, assumed discarded Akatsuki cloak tied around her shoulders, "STRIKE, TOBI! YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN DO IT!"

"YES, DEIDARA! I KNOW! I'M THE ONLY REAL HERO IN THE AKATSUKI!"

"No." Lisa responded simply, walking back into the kitchen, "Fuck this."

Immediately at her denial, the masked male was running quickly towards Amber and Hailey - though soon, only Amber, as the latter had fled into safety beneath the table.

"Ah.. T-Tobi wait!"

But this was the Tobi train. And they hadn't invented breaks.

* * *

 **A/N: Helloooo everyone! ^^ How are you? I'm good, thank you (o_o;;; if you asked.).**

 **I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!**

 **A Big thank you to everyone that has Followed, Favorited, and Reviewed!**

 **You're greatly appreciated and really help me keep the ball rolling!**


	7. Chapter 7: Clarity, Secrets, and Plans

Chapter 7 : Clarity, Secrets, and Plans

"So, what?" Lisa piped up, fingers interlocked behind her head. She had been spending this time leaning off of the side of Itachi's vacant bed, pestering Kisame as a result. Her eyes narrowed skeptically, "Half of the Akatsuki just up and left?"

Kisame's beady eyes slid to his side, eying the girl cautiously. He had been through nothing but interrogation, and while he had nothing short of the right to deny outright answers, it was also true he thought nothing of their ability to utilize it. "Basically. Other business to attend to. And just why are you so curious all of a sudden, eh?"

Her shoulders loosely shrugged, "Why not?" Her hands slid out onto the bed at her sides, digging into the plain, but neatly placed beige bedding to pull herself upright. "We're stuck here with no definitive answer to what the Hell's going to happen to us." She drawled almost to herself mostly, arms hanging limply against her legs, "That, and I don't know how I feel about some of these guys roaming around with no big leader guy to keep 'em in check."

"We're adults, pipsqueak." He leaned back after setting Samehada to the side, back resting calmly against the wall. His eyes shut to the tune of a soothed exhale, "We're perfectly capable of handling ourselves-"

"Amber!" One could hear Tobi's heavy footsteps pattering down the hallway, chasing after the fleeing brunette, "Amber, wait! Why are you running?!"

Lisa's widened eyes, which traced the twosome's route past the door, slowly became bland as they turned on Kisame. "Yeah." She maintained the same dullness, sarcasm seeping into her tongue, "What capable adults you are, huh?"

"The _Akatsuki's_ perfectly capable. That kid's an extra," The blue-skinned male clarified calmly.

"Oh, yeah sure," Lisa smugly shot, "Anything just to make yourself right, huh? You "Akatsuki _adults_ " are somethin' else."

Kisame's eye hardly opened, stale gaze locked on her and her haughty countenance, "Is there any reason you're still hanging around?"

"Lack of entertainment..." She answered, level of bemusement matched evenly.

"If it'll get you to leave me alone," he trailed, rocking himself up to the edge of the bed whilst groaning in exasperation at having to move from the sweet spot he'd just gotten comfortable in, "we'll find you somethin'... Ever played Shogi?"

"Mmmm!" A strategy game? It was like Japanese chess, right? "I'ma stop you right there." No way in Hell she was going to be 'entertained' by forcing herself to think. What was wrong with him? She wasted no time, didn't even wait for him to look at her - only for him to stop, "Ever played Poker?"

Molly stepped back from outside the door, having thought for a moment that the two she had been listening in on were really going to leave out -though, thanks to Lisa, and her on-demand deck of cards, they didn't. The small blond clutched the collar of her hoodie through her long sleeves. She wouldn't say she was the _most_ information savvy of the group, with regards to the Naruto fandom, but from what she knew... Tobi didn't officially arrive until after Sasori had... died, right?

The house in the woods, the normal appearance, all of the Akatsuki being present - Tobi included. It was such a bizzare, non-canonical spin. Was that to be her proof that none of this was real..? But then... that didn't explain their strength - their personalities and appearances.

The small girl drew her fist in a little tighter, bright blue eyes beginning to dull just slightly at the thought that - well... Nothing was making sense. Realization was something she came to often - but it was just as true that it was something that she much-preferred to avoid. To know that returning home seemed bleak, or maybe even impossible... The idea terrified her.

"Oh?"

The blond jolted, looking up briskly to stare the mask in the face, "Tobi!"

"Why are you looking so sad, huh? You don't have any reason to be, do you?" His head tipped much like a curious child, shoulders risen with a clear eagerness to hear a speedy reply.

Appeasing, Molly swiftly and forcibly shook her head, looking up to the bending male blissfully, "Of course not! I was just thinking! Come on! Let's go find Amber!" She knew that Amber would probably be less than pleased about that, but it was a good way to shift the situation.

"Mhm!" He lifted his arm triumphantly, a sense of duty in his puffed out chest as he gripped Molly's arm and dragged her along and a speed and strength that was potentially a bit uncomfortable for the small girl - but she never complained.

Hailey watched as they corralled down the hallway, messily swaying to and fro whilst bumping the wall multiple times from what she could assume was their own unsteady footing. Her blue eyes drooped in stare whilst her fingers traced over her collarbone.

"It's a shame that this is becoming normal to me..." She droned, turning to look around the hallway intersection in rapid head turns. "That aside, however, I need to know where the leader is." Her free hand eased down the chest-bindings and netting shirt that she had been given to wear out of the poorly picked clothing of other Akatsuki members. It truly felt like something that should have been worn beneath something else, rather than by its lonesome. "I haven't made too much of a fuss, but I can't keep wearing these clothing. I'm a _woman._ "

"I'm afraid that fuss will have to wait a moment longer then."

Haily turned her gaze to the room at her right, eyes locking onto the redhead sitting occupied at his table. Her brow furrowed, seeing what appeared to be a lot of disassembled doll parts lying around with unhinged joints and loose, dangling limbs. Her brow furrowed from a wave of immense discomfort, but she began her hesitant stride over regardless.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She piped up. As if from normal responses to just about everything and anything, she crossed her arms expectantly over her chest and delved into a sassy disposition with crooked hip.

The red-haired male never passed a glance in her direction, only continued to repair the pieces of his work, "It's self-explanatory, isn't it? The leader isn't here."

"What?!" Her hands inadvertently settled atop the corner of his desk, blue eyes piercing through him, "When will he be back? Can't one of the ones around here take me shopping? It's not that big of a task, right?"

"Sorry." He didn't truly seem sorry. In fact, the way his tone descended almost gave the impression that he took a certain pleasure from shutting down her desire, "We can only do as we have permission to do."

Hailey's brows knit together, lips upturning to a strong pout.

"Also," He casually began speaking again, brown irises sliding to the edge to gaze at her from the corner of his eye - despite their serene and almost unnervingly calm appearance, a certain venom was most-definitely taking refuge there as well, "if you don't remove your hands from my workspace, you may find yourself on it." One could recognize a growing hesitation towards the endpoint of his sentiment, though he finished it regardless. It was only afterwards that his studying eyes were translated into speech, "Nevermind." He was looking directly to her chest.

Hailey snatched her hand back from the work table, a twinge of pink bridging over her nose from cheek to cheek. Her arm fell defensively over her chest whilst her blue eyes fell into a distasteful glower, "E-excuse me?"

"I'd rather not build something with such imperfections." Disinterest filled Sasori's once appraising glance, and with Hailey's hands removed from his workspace, he returned to it. Surely, he had been referring to the still dark and unsightly bruise across her upper chest, but it seemed that was far from the thing that the blond had assumed.

"W-What!? What are you-" Well, now, rather than embarrassed, she was merely threatened. At least the change in emotion would stop her from making ridiculous assumptions, right? "I'll have you know, I keep a careful eye on my diet! I take care of my hair and my skin, I exercise daily, and I am sure that my body is riddled with nothing but the most _perfect_ of ' _imperfections'_ so, _Puppetman_ , that is _your_ loss!" Scratch that - it caused her to make even more of a fool of herself than before.

"I heard body." A certain silver haired male popped his head into the room, magenta eyes aglow and tongue practically poking out from the corner of his mouth.

"Ugh!" A rigid shiver coursed up through Hailey's spine. Her hands ran over the goosebumps that sprouted up on her arms, eyes shifting irritably away, "Insufferable pervert."

"If this will turn into an argument or 'debate'," Sasori spoke up, peering between the two, "feel free to move this away from my room." His eyes were looking primarily to Hidan, being he was well-aware the rebellious fool would be interested in doing the exact opposite, just for the sake of causing annoyance.

"You heard 'em," Hidan leaned back against the frame of the door, bulkier arms crossing expectantly over his chest, "let's keep it outta his room and take it back to mine." Oh that grin procured his point so well.

Hailey sat down at the edge of Deidara's empty bed, crossing one leg over the other with her nose turning so far up in the air that it was a wonder that she could still see what direction Hidan was even in, "I'd rather die than set foot in that dirty, musty dungeon you call a room. Leave me be, thank you."

Exasperation lined Sasori's face as the silver-haired male moved to speak up again. He honestly should have seen it coming, but for some reason other than hopefullness, he dared reiterate, "Out of my room."

"Tsk," Hidan scoffed quietly, looking to Hailey disdainfully, only to crook his head to the side and leer intently instead - only to infuriate her, which he succeeded in doing. Within only a couple of moments, there were pillows being hurled at him through the doorway, causing him to vacate whilst letting loose bouts of howling laughter.

Meanwhile, down the hall, one could hear Amber's pleas for solitude, "Just give me some time alone!" She shouted through a locked door. It was a room that was relatively empty, only a curtained window there to save it from being completely bare. Throughout the course of this time, it felt as if the brunette had been shoved into social situation after social situation. Surely, she wasn't anti-social, but after long hours or days of being exposed to people, she needed time to herself to recharge.

She actually blessed this empty room - it was just the place she needed, but would they really allow there to be an unattended room with a window?

She rose up off of the floor, ignoring the sounds of knocking from just outside, and crawled over to the window. Her hands glossed past the curtains, which seemed to be collecting nothing but mounds of dust that lifted into the air the moment she touched them.

Had this room been empty for that long?

She traced her fingers over the sill, collecting dust as well, whilst making their way up to the window's hinges: nailed down.

Of course - they wouldn't have even one place where they could escape off to themselves, huh? Her lips parted to offer a quiet sigh. Her back rested against the door before slowly lowering down to the ground where she began.

"Amber!" Tobi called out from outside once more, leaving a small anger tick against her forehead.

"I'll come out in a little while! For now, leave me alone!" It was a bit more coarse than what he was used to, she was sure, but a little solitude was a necessity.

"I don't think you're supposed to be in there!" Tobi called back once more.

Why couldn't she be? It was literally just an empty room. What would happen? Would she die of dust inhalation? Because that was seemingly like the only likely result around now. "Why not..?"

"I dunno... No one's really gone in there in a long time! People stay away from it!"

Oh... So everyone avoids it. ' _What a wonderful reason,'_ Amber thought dryly. Just because everyone thought it was bad, it was? What a hive-minded- ' _There's a lesson in this somewhere, isn't there..?'_ She shook her head, huffing quietly as she opened the door to exit, "Fine."

"You're alive!" Molly attached to Amber in a full bear-hug, clearly responding far too over-dramatically, as if swept up in the hype. Amber didn't mind this too much, but her brow twitched slightly as she felt Tobi latch on as well - it certainly didn't take long for his antics to begin wearing on her nerves.

Abruptly, all semblance of 'hugging' was dropped as Tobi was off again, lifting Molly to carry with him - what was he running to?

"Deidara's back!" He gleefully chimed, tossing the small blond girl in the air then continuing to run, "Hurrah! I can tell! I could hear it!" He reached the door, peering outside enthusiastically, "Ohh! He brought everyone! Leader's here too!"

"FINALLY!" One could hear Hailey shout, hopping back up to her feet, "I need to have a word with him!"

* * *

 **A/N: It seems the plan is to go shopping! It seems harmless enough, but who knows if the Leader will wanna give that a shot. Also! MYSTERIOUS DOOR. and... hidan. okey. yeah. done here.**

 **Feel free to leave me your predictions for ships, and I'm always open for feedback!**

 **TUNE IN NEXT TIME FOR FUN YAY.**

 **Also: I'd like to thank all of you for your amazing support! It's really encouraging!**

 **PS: I'm working on some other stories - not all of them being for the Naruto fandom. So look out for those if you wanna see more!**


	8. Chapter 8: Morning Chatter

Chapter 8

Footsteps gently edged through the hallway, thumping loudly through the hall - a clear indication that someone was either heavy-footed, halfway asleep, or potentially both.

"Princess," the walker dryly acknowledged. Lisa raised up her hand, seeing Hailey doing whatever work she seemed to be doing over there on the stove. She took a seat on one of the chairs, propping her chin up in her hands whilst looking over to the blonde. She seemed to be concentrating extra hard, for whatever reason. "What're you doing up so early?"

Hailey turned her nose up as if displeased, tipping her head sternly, "I always wake up early - I always _have_ woken up early." It wasn't a condescending tone that she was using, but it was certainly one that proved she was speaking nothing but one hundred percent fact. She edged a spatula beneath a pancake, flipping it over after careful checking and studying as if trying to be sure that it wouldn't flop outside of the pan. "I see no reason to change my habits now."

"Uh-huh." Lisa watched idly, expression already growing dull. She wasn't exactly saying anything very interesting, but regardless, she let it fly. "I mean, I could think of a reason why you wouldn't be up and about at nine in the morning but, whatever."

"Six," Hailey corrected, setting down a plate of pancakes on the table, "I woke up at six."

Lisa ungracefully reached to slide a flapjack from the dish with her fingers, only for her hand to be briskly smacked away by Hailey. "Manners." The blonde starkly scolded.

"Yeah, whatever." And Lisa simply disregarded and proceeded to swipe one anyway, much to Hailey's distaste. "Didja make anything else with this? Like. Bacon? They've got a zombie, a shark, and a Hidan around this place - they've got to have some kind of breakfast meats."

Hailey's expression contorted, teeth showing through the disgusted parting of lips, "If they do, I wouldn't know. I have no interest in cooking, nor serving meat."

"Vegetarian..." The short haired girl muttered through a full mouth, "You know, that totally seems like a you thing."

"Whatever." She murmured to herself, taking a sip from a mug of what could be assumed was coffee.

"Mornin'."

The two turned to take a gander at the mouth of the hall, seeing Amber come out seeming pretty comfortable given the current circumstances. The brunette wiped her eyes, taking a seat and looking to the pancakes, "Cooking breakfast..?"

"We may be in a different environment... And.. _with less than desirable company..._ but that doesn't mean we should behave like barbarians." Wise words from Hailey.

Amber couldn't help but crack an ironic smile at this, but she didn't speak a word, only placed her chin in her hand, "So - what's the word on your shopping?"

Hailey leaned forward, briskly brushing her fingers over her lips to halt them parting until she was done swallowing the drink in her mouth. Her blue eyes seemed to light a glow-like sheen, clear joy that had only been present for the first time. She certainly did love her shopping, "Oh, it went well! We're definitely going - it's only a matter of when."

"What were they even out doing anyway?" Lisa questioned dryly, chunking another pancake down her throat haphazardly.

"Probably trying to look for America," Amber casually replied, completely oblivious to the fact that she had nearly sent Lisa choking on the breaded food she had choked down a moment ago. The short haired girl swiped Hailey's coffee, much to the blonde's protest, and gulped it down to push the pancake out of her way.

"That." Lisa fragmented, patting her chest and beginning to let out an amused laugh, "That is too rich, oh my God. I swear I'm going to call Pein Colombus from now on."

Hailey rolled her eyes, pushing the mug away and back towards Lisa, no desire to drink out of that cup any longer, even if Lisa had been gracious enough to leave some coffee in the cup -coupled with a sea of her germs too, of course.

Amber chuckled quietly to herself, though the threesome turned at one more addition to their morning chatter.

"Oh. I was expecting Molly," Lisa said blatantly, watching as a groggy Deidara's face contorted to disapproval. He looked at the lot of them, visible eye gliding over them with unwelcoming deadness only matched by his deep frown.

"You look like shit." Lisa promptly added.

With a slam of the refrigerator door, the blond male lugged himself back down the hall, his retreating form revealing a curious Molly.

"What happened?" She questioned curiously, coming up to join the three.

"Nothing," Amber spoke up. She roomed with them after all. It was quite easy to see that there wasn't much out of the ordinary with that. "He literally wakes up that way every morning."

"My condolences," Lisa dryly replied.

"Question," Hailey spoke up, thoughtfully furrowing her brow. She looked to the side, chin resting on the back of her hand as if trying to gather her thoughts before speaking up, "Has anyone seen that one girl?"

"Skye?" Molly piped up, glass of milk in hand," She's been sleeping a whole lot lately..."

From the moment they had gotten there, Skye had been quiet and timid, keeping to the background and appearing as scarcely as possible. As the days went by, she became more and more evasive - even more so than she already was - and it was growing conerning.

"I hope she's not getting sick," Amber thoughtfully murmured.

"Isn't she rooming with the flytrap and the lollipop? I could see her getting sick with stress off of something like that... Or just teeming with disease..."

"Lisa, please," Molly whined - not amused by the topic.

Speak of the devil - the little timid thing came walking in. She was even paler than usual it seemed, her blue eyes that were usually a bright pale color, now dim and dull. She took one step, and her body seemed to stumble a little to the right.

"Whoa," Lisa rose a brow, seeing Molly attempt to reach out to stabilize the girl. "What've you not woken up all the way?"

Skye looked up with a faint smile, only to look away slightly and begin to walk away slightly to look into the fridge. It was hard, if not, impossible for the others to see, but her legs seemed to be shaking like that of a newborn fawn's. She grabbed an apple in her hands and turned back towards the hall.

"Hey hey," Lisa muttered, brow raising, "You don't wanna hang with us?"

"Don't hasrass her," Hailey hushedly scolded, worried that in her stressed state, Lisa would only be adding to Skye's apparent stress.

Skye slowly turned back, lowering her mouth down from her apple and appearing to look between them all as if the very thought of socializing with the group was giving her anxiety.

"She was just kidding," Amber assured, and sure enough, Skye's shoulders seemed to slower slightly.

"S...sorry..." She said, nearly too quiet to really be heard, and slowly began to back away, turning quickly on her heel to scurry down the hallway.

"Good job," Hailey snapped in hush. She folded her arms against her chest, Amber and Molly both joining her in glaring at the loudmouth across the way.

"What!? I didn't even do anything?I didn't think she was _that_ easily spooked..."

The four quietly conversed for a bit longer on various topics. It was strange - despite everything that had happened, they managed to find some sort of kinship, however shallow it may have been at this point. They had no serious common ground - but at this point, their abduction seemed enough to let them bond. Strange, indeed.

From the hall, one could see Deidara return. Had he not gotten what he wanted beforehand? He was fully dressed now, and seemed much more awake, but it didn't do much for the deep scowl he had across his face.

The group of girls all turned to look at him, staring blankly as he cleared his throat, however, only Lisa was the one with enough backbone to speak up, "What!?"

"Do you want to go shopping or not, hmn?!"

"OH!"

The lot of them quickly seemed to get up. The opportunity for fresh air? For free roaming? For sunshine? To get out of these ragged clothes that they were given with little choice? They scattered, all filing down the hall and into their respective rooms to grab whatever they required.

This was going to be a shopping trip and it was going to be glorious!

Although... they all seemed to overlook one small detail.

They were going to be supervised..!?

 **A/N: A very short and dialogue heavy chapter, I know!**

 **Sorry that this was SOOO LATE. I know I don't have an udpate schedule, but it's been a really long time. A lot of insane things have been going on, including a recent car accident. Talk about insane, right? Don't worry, everyone's safe and sound.**

 **Also - I have a few things I'd like to address, if you'll hear me out.**

 **1\. I have a Poll up! It's just a fun little Poll for this story where you can either vote on your favorite pairings or use it to guess which pairing you think will happen.**

 **I've allowed up to 5 choices for this - so you can pick one favorite pair for each girl. So enjoy that!**

 **2\. Headcanonz is finally ready! If you don't know, Headcanonz is a thing where I'll basically a set up a "story" for a fandom. This'll be more like a collection of drabbles and short stories where I'll be pairing OCs with Canons in order to try making the best possible ship for that canon. My goal is to make them so good that it can basically be considered a headcanon for me, and maybe you guys too!**

 **I plan on allowing a lot of interactivity with that, so that you guys can give me suggestions on what to write about next, and such as that. I also plan to do Q &As and Skits and whatnot (See #3).**

 **3\. I have a Deviantart! My Deviantart is where I'll be posting Q &As, Skits, Artwork, and where you can also find the indepth character profiles for each OC that I introduce (only some of them aren't out yet, so bear with me). I don't know how Deviantart is with External Links. So I'll just tell you guys**

 _ **My Deviantart Username is " Songcall ".**_

 **Follow me there for art and other things related to Headcanonz.**

 **4\. If I have anymore information on this stuff, check my Profile, I'll be updating to have more information on this stuff there!**

 **Thanks everyone for being such a wonderful group of followers. I love you!**


	9. Chapter 9: Shopping For Trouble

Shame Chapter 9

It had taken what seemed like literal seconds for everyone to pull themselves together for a day on the town - all except Hailey of course. Apparently, even though she was ready to go buy _new_ sets of clothing and whatnot, she was still more than determined to spend over twenty minutes on adjusting little details alone - so she said, she wanted to " _still be presentable! This is the first time the people nearby are going to see me!"._

Save for Lisa, no one gave her too much trouble on the matter - but luckily, she finished up.

At this moment, the five girl seemed to be walking the same portion of the forest they had explored during their first arrival, their company being -not the leader himself, of course,- but his favorite under-lackeys as one would have it: Deidara, Hidan, Itachi, Sasori.

Honestly, half of them seemed more like the ones that should have been left at home if anything in this chaperone 'mission' required competence.

"At least they're mild mannered," Hailey prompted, though slowly glanced over her shoulder, eying a certain Jashinist distastefully, "Well... mostly..." He seemed not to be too perturbed, only smirked as if he'd taken her glance as something positive. Hailey rolled her eyes snottily, turning her attention to Lisa and Amber.

"So what's the plan?" Lisa questioned under her breath, "Wait til we get to a populated area and scream bloody murder?"

Amber shook her head subtly, "Too rash." They had no idea what was going to be awaiting them at the end of this venture - and if it was something less than desirable, or a town filled with bruets and thugs, them calling for help would probably just end badly. "We need to be patient and observe," She rationalized.

"Oi," Hidan spoke up, causing an immediate reaction in Hailey to cringe from just the sound of his voice, "what're you whisperin' about?"

Lisa turned briskly over her shoulder, brow hiking high and lip curling dryly, "Menstrual Cycles."

As he recoiled, Hailey and Amber stared at the delinquent girl in shock and awe. The both of them seemed flushed with color. "Did you really just..." Hailey's hand went to her own cheek, seemingly attempting to suppress the color from such a blatant remark. Had she no shame?

"What? That's where he gets for sticking his nose where it doesn't belong," The shorter haired girl scoffed, driving her hands into the pockets of her loose, borrowed pants.

Hidan seemed like he was about to open his mouth, but Sasori ended that potential argument before it ever had even the slimmest chance of happening. "Quit the chattering." He starkly demanded, moving to take the spot at the lead of the group, "We're here."

The girls all seemed to approach quickly, each curious at seeing just what sort of place they were caught in.

It was a dusty old...town?

If one could even call it a town. It looked so antique, one could probably even refer to it as a village of sorts. The villages were so small they were practically comparable to shacks - the roads were barely paved and there seemed to be dirt everywhere else. Scarcely, people walked through the streets, and overtop the surroundings of the few tall trees that rested around the perimeter, the sun could barely shine on the pitiful place.

"This is honestly about what I expected." Lisa blandly stated.

Amber merely sighed, having expected a little more - this didn't even look like it was in the same century. How, may one ask, could these Akatsuki people have a full set house in the middle of the woods with indoor plumbing and running water - while the towns next door look like something from years in the past?

' _And the fanfiction continues...'_ she thought, gazing through tired eyes.

"We're supposed to get clothes here?" Hailey stepped out into the town, arms folded whilst taking a look around, "This place looks like it could barely afford rags, let alone clothes."

"Wow." Lisa quickly interjected, tone never raising about a casual quip, "But I guess you're going to tell me you're not shallow, though, right?" She walked passed the flustered, insulted Hailey, and continued into the town, lifting her head to take a full look at her surroundings.

Molly seemed to be hanging back with Skye a bit, hands fastened gently around the smaller girl's wrist, feeling unsure after the little episode earlier in the morning.

"Don't be so hard on the place!" Molly chirped, "It's kind of cute!"

Heaven could only take a good guess at how a dirtball town like this could have been cute.

"We don't have all day to waste on sightseeing," Sasori spoke up once more. He raised his hand to usher the girls along - clearly his impatience beginning to register as urging haste, "The shop is there." And he pointed to... yet another shack like thing - except... well, at least this one looked slightly larger than the others, but not by much.

The five eased in through the door, to find that save for about three people, one being the clerk, absolutely no one was present.

' _Screaming for help in this place might get you a passing glance if you're lucky,'_ Lisa thought bitterly, folding her arms whilst entering near the racks. It was certainly a contrast from where she lived. She brushed her hands through the fabrics, brow quirking - oh alright. So they did have some clothes. Basically the same style of clothes that they had been forced into wearing, but at least these were newer and actually could be appropriately worn on the female body.

"Hhhnnn..." Of course, it seemed like Hailey was priortizing style. Her tone could be heard carrying in displeasure all across the store, as if appraising the clothes with the judging eye of a professional.

Molly was trying to show out the clothing to Skye, who still seemed too reserved to file through clothing on her own in front of people.

Likewise, Amber was just idly running her fingers over the materials.

Lisa, however, was keeping her eyes open the entire time: peeled and watchful. The Akatsuki hadn't come in with them. The store was just as bare and empty as when they had gotten there. Her dark eyes slowly eased over to the doorframe, and from there, she caught a clip of black and blond. So they were just guarding the door then. It seemed like they wouldn't forget that captives would most-likely attempt to escape the first moment they got.

Smart boys.

' _But..._ ' Lisa pondered quietly, easing beneath the wooden rack of clothing. She crouched through the fabrics, poking out from her place to try catching the sight of any other way out. A window, a backdoor, anything?

Slowly looking up, Lisa met eyes with an older woman that also seemed to be shopping there. The older woman was staring in an odd way -

' _I guess kids don't go crawling through clothing racks in this town.'_ Lisa thought to herself. Without a word, leaving the woman even more confused, she slowly withdrew back into the clothes, shutting the opening she'd poked out of as she retreated.

"This isn't the most fashionable," Hailey noted to herself, lifting a few fabrics over her arm, "but I could probably do some tweaking and make these look magazine-ready even..." She looked at the fitting black material - it would probably do some serious clinging to the body, but she certainly didn't take such good care of it just so it could rot beneath layers of fabric. Oh, and they had skirts too? She looked curiously at them, tipping her head.

' _The material's so thick... What would you need a skirt this durable for..?'_

"Oh, are you planning on getting that?"

Hailey slowly turned around to the sound of the voice - a young man. Oh, he must have been the clerk. She offered a gleeful smile full of charisma that, at this point, no one here knew she had. "Oh, I'm thinking about it." She drew her knuckle up to her chin. If she could maybe push a little friendliness on this man, she could probably get something more fitting for her, or maybe even something not originally for sale. It was a classic technique that she had been using for years now.

With flirtatious blue eyes and softly batting eyelashes, she allowed her lips to curve up into a very subtle, sweet smile, "What do you think would suit me?" Hopefully he had good taste.

"Asking me?" The male questioned. His brow raised and a jagged smirk coiled up onto his lips, "I think you'd look good in as little as possible."

 _'Wait. What? Is this how clerks flirt here?'_ her smile faltered slightly, brow twitching, though she attempted to regain her composure. Her eyes eased over to the corner, seeing the clerk come out from a room in the back - OH. So this man wasn't the clerk at all! She smiled sugar-sweet once more, taking a step back, "Well! Thank you for the insight!" She quickly spoke up, turning on her heel.

' _Strange situation avoided.'_ She thought dryly. Her smile immediately faded into a disgusted frown the moment she turned her back.

"Hey, hold on, _princess._ " That was completely different from how Lisa said it. She was begrudgingly growing familiar with being mocked with the term 'princess', just as familiar as she was with being called 'princess' back home as an endearing name. But this was some strange, slightly older looking man in a dust ball town that's probably nearly been sanded off the map. And the way he spoke? It sounded sludge-like and cooing.

' _CAT-CALLING. I THOUGHT THIS ONLY HAPPENED IN CITIES.'_ Her eyes practically bugged out as she felt the male take her wrist.

Amber slowly glanced over, a tinge of disturb darkening her expression. Those sorts of sleezebags liked to hang around a small time clothing store? Didn't they belong in a bar or tavern? Or.. maybe she was letting her list of author cliches get caught in her mind.

"I think we should get someone," Molly thought aloud, though unwilling to let go of Skye's wrist. She looked around for their Akatsuki company, having missed their presence outside the door.

"Hey hey," One could hear Lisa stepping out of the clothing rack, succeeding in momentarily bewildering the man. The dark haired girl's eyes took a gander in Hailey's direction, before slowly peering back towards the male. "I need you to not move in on my woman." She blatantly spoke up.

Hailey's eyes bugged out, lower lid twitching. It almost appeared as if her entire expression had deflated, "E-excuse-"

Lisa reached down, prying the male's wrist off of Hailey's whilst looking up in unenthusiastic challenge, then proceeded to drape her own arm around Hailey's shoulders, "She's a taken woman."

"Well," Hailey spoke up, growing more and more blatantly uncomfortable as the charade went on, "That... That's actually the truth - I am a taken woman..." She trailed off. At least that wasn't a blatant lie, even if she didn't necessarily agree with this method.

The man casually gripped _both_ of their wrists this time, "I ain't lookin' for a relationship - just a good time."

"Oh." Lisa immediately said. Her tough, possessive facade fell apart quickly. "I was not expecting this outcome, to be honest." Good thing she didn't realize the sharp daggers Hailey seemed to be glaring in her direction.

The man's advancements were immediately halted, a hulking mass standing behind him, casting a dark shadow. He slowly turned to reluctantly glance to his back, seeing the silver haired Jashinist staring down at him with the eyes of psychopath - or as the girls knew it: his usual expression. "Whatcha doin'...?" he questioned idly. It was spoken in a relaxed tone, but his dark aura offered a far more sinister feel.

"Hey..." The man quickly let go, backing away with his hands risen defensively to his chest, "I didn't know they were yours..." Clearly he talked up a big game, but he had very little follow through. In fact, to avoid further embarrassment or potential injury, he roughly cleared his throat and saw himself out.

"It worked!" Molly chimed, hands up with glee.

"Of all the people you had to choose?" Hailey drawled, stepping away from Hidan in the midst of pawwing at her hand. It would almost appear that she was trying to clear away the lingering feel of the man's touch on her wrist.

"I didn't choose him." Molly quickly corrected, raising a finger matter-of-factly, "It's just.. he was the quickest one to come inside."

Oh. Of course he was the first one to jump at the chance to get involved with a squabble? One could practically see the disappointment on his face at the fact that he hadn't the chance to pummel that man. "Couldn't let anybody touch this," He said in a tone drawling with the clear aim to frustrate the blond priss, "Only I can touch this." He slid his hand down her back too low for comfort, likely the reason behind her abrupt stiffening and shudder.

Not even a split second passed in which Hidan was given a reddened palm mark across his cheek, though he hardly seemed perturbed. In fact, that stiff whack only seemed to bring a smirk to his face as he touched the stinging area. It actually gave a little pain... She must have been literally everything she had into that one. His tongue drew across the corner of his lip as he watched her withdraw.

"Everyone seems to forget!" Hailey shot, turning around briskly, " _I_ am a taken woman!"

In the momentary silence, Lisa's head suddenly rose, "Why didn't she hit _him_ like that..?" She spoke up, referring to the man from moments ago.

"Differing levels of hatred..?" Molly offered inquisitively.

The silence lingered on for a moment longer.

"Hurry it up." They heard Sasori call, and once again, they were in a scramble to grab the various clothings they had been rummaging through. .

The clothing was paid for - even if it was quite a lot, they seemed to have no trouble covering the costs. In fact, though it was left ambigious just what the clerk had said to them, she gave majority of the money they paid back to them.

"Probably threatened her," Lisa proposed, fingers rubbing at her chin.

"That's really not okay," Amber added, huffing quietly, "It seems like the people in this town barely have enough money to get by as it is..."

Lisa tuned out to this reasoning, her head beginning to turn in various directions as she got a better look at the town once more. Yeah. It was relatively empty. And from the left, to the right, and in every other direction, it seemed to offer little more than a path back into that forest. Her dark brown eyes caught sight of something in the distance. Narrowing her eyes, she noticed one small path where a man was entering - marked only by the beginnings of a tiny stream.

There was nothing they could do with that now. Too many things had already happened, and the guys would probably have them in their sights at all times. But this couldn't be the only time they would come to this town - they would just have to bide their time and be patient.

"Lisa," Hailey spoke up, arms folded as she glanced away.

Lisa, snapped from her thoughts, glanced over to the blond girl, raising a brow subtly, "Yeah? What?"

Her fingers coiled through her own blond locks, blue eyes hesitantly drifting up for a moment before turning away, "Thank you for trying to help." She quickly added, "it didn't accomplish anything, certainly! But... I appreciate the effort."

Did... Did the princess just _thank_ her?

' _Holy Hell.'_ She thought, staring without words for a second, "Uh. Yeah... You're welcome or whatever - it was nothing..."

The two of them both looked away, only to see Molly's large eyes staring up at them with wobbling eyes filled with joyous admiration.

"What the Hell are _you_ looking at?" Lisa shot, hands on her hips as she leaned forward intimidatingly.

"Oh oh! Nothinggg~!" She drew out. To be honest - Molly was just happy to see that they were all finally starting to get along. It may not have been much - but it was certainly a contrast from their first moments together. Bettering bonds? New clothes? Some fresh air? It seemed like this shopping trip was a success.

 **A/N: Poor Hailey. LOL. Unfortunately, she's just a very pretty girl. BUT SHE IS A TAKEN WOMAN. OKAH.**

 **Just a reminder - if you haven't checked out my profile for Headcanonz, or my Deviantart, you should do that! ^3^ I released the coverpage for Shame there early~. So people there got to see it first. uwu I also think I want to do some more art for these girls and this story - so all of it will probably be posted there.**

 **ALSO. Just another reminder - the Poll is up on my profile for you to either mark up your OTP or take a guess at who you think will be the ending ship. These are definitely plot-based slowboilers, so you have plenty of time to think about that.**

 **FINALLY. Okay i really need to get into this. *Wipes tear***

 **Thank you, everyone who shows their support to this story. It was originally just revisiting an old concept I haven't done in a really long time for whim's sake. But. I'm just so touched you guys really like it. I hadn't written in a long time, and was worried I was getting rusty - so I made this to get back into the flow.**

 **Ahhh but you guys. MY.. MY MELODIES. YES. SONG'S MELODIES. (FINALLY GOT A NAME YES)... YOU GUYS MAKE WRITING WORTHWHILE.**

 **Thank you to DollXparts - my first reviewer!**

 **Thank you to DarkRoseCharm - a frequent and curious reviewer!**

 **Thank you to Tobiramamara, a wayward reviewer that dropped a kind word.**

 **Thank you to MissKnightyNight - I saw your review yesterday and I had to covertly wipe a tear to pretend that I wasn't crying at all. Nope. Not crying. That was so sweet oh my gosh. I welcome you to Fanfiction and hope you have a wonderful experience here. If you ever need anything, lemme know.**

 **P.S. Reviews on Fanfictions are basically comments yes. It's called a review but very few people actually 'review'. LOL. So don't worry.**


	10. Chapter 10: Truth or Punishment Part I

"You seem fond of this guy," Kisame added, sitting up and stretching his shoulders. He'd been there for a while - sitting and hearing Hailey ranting on once more. Honestly, it was nothing new at this point, but it was progress. Beforehand, whenever she would get started on her wordy explanations, he would just tune her out. Lately, it was getting much harder to do - it happened so often, and every now and then, she started speaking on things that were actually pretty intriguing.

"Of course!" Hailey, sitting crisscross on her extra bed, placed in the middle of the room, set her hands down on her shins, rocking to adjust her seating. "He has my heart after all." Her expression softened fondly, hands over her chest, "And I already know he'll cherish it."

At that, Kisame couldn't help but roll his eyes, "You've been here for two weeks. You'd think one of you'll start wandering soon."

She seemed absolutely apalled, brows knitting deeply together in shock at such an accusation, "I would never go wandering off to someone else like that! Shame on you!" He wasn't fazed by the scolding, but he could tell he shouldn't be combatting it, as Hailey was leaning back to nestle in comfortably and start up once more. "And he... He would never." She tipped her head, looking between the quietly spectating Kisame and silently reading Itachi. "Have you ever had someone... That's just that close to you? All the time? Even if you aren't near one another? Someone that you know would do anything for you? Or that when things got difficult, you could always rely on?"

"Can't say I do," Kisame blandly replied. He didn't really seem interested in having someone like that either, to be frank.

"You're so thick-skulled! Think of the idea of someone you can spend every moment of the rest of your life with!"

At that abrupt moment, there was the sound of thick pages clapping together. Though not particularly forceful, it was still loud enough to be clearly heard. Itachi stood from the edge of his bed, getting up to leave the room.

"Ah?" The princess lifted her head quickly, frowning at the sudden departure, "Itachi..?"

Poor girl was absent to the thought of what could make him go, but it seemed the shark on her right was far less clueless. Hailey withdrew, coiling her hands in towards her chest - was it something she said..? Was it something that struck his nerves? She filed through her thoughts - her very few thoughts on Itachi Uchiha. She hadn't made it incredibly far into the series. Certainly it was her love for a while, but things had begun to change in that regard.

Let's see... What could there be...

' _His clan...'_ She thought quietly to herself. But then... Hadn't he done that of his own accord? It would be a little abrupt to start feeling regret now, wouldn't it?

"Kisame," She urged questioningly-

"Nu uh." He abruptly responded by sitting up and shaking his head dismissively, "You can give that up - you won't be prying any answers from me."

"Oh, what a help you are," She huffed out hot air. She understood. It was a matter of closeness between the two and a shared whim of secrecy. She wouldn't be prying anymore for information from him. But.. she did at least want to see if he was alright.

She scoot to the edge of the bed, going to raise at the corner-

"Hey, now." Kisame spoke up, "You're going after him?"

She turned her curiosity on the shark man before her, "Should I not..?"

There was a brief silence, before he responded with a subtle shrug, keying her in that she could do whatever she pleased. Itachi wasn't the type to lash out or become irrational, so if anything, approaching was a perfectly safe option.

So she did just that. Peeking out of the door, she looked around the corner the way he had gone. Nothing in the hall. She made her way up, and took another scan - Nothing still. Where had he gone, just that fast..?

Her expression grew dull. This honestly didn't surprise her. She would just have to catch him later. She turned to walk down the hall, only to feel a slight tug at her arm.

"Hailey!" Molly piped up, motioning over to whom had basically become her partner in crime by this point, "Tobi and I were just going to round everyone up to play a game! Do you wanna join in?" Those big sparkly eyes. That big sparkly...eye..hole.. in a mask. Could she say no?

"Not really..." She trailed, only to trigger the loud simultaneous whines of the two.

"Really?" Molly's eyes seemed to only grow larger and more wobbly with the intensity of the light. "Aw c'mon!" Tobi pitched in.

A bead of sweat dripped down Hailey's cheek - were these two always this persuasive? "Actually..." She began, motioning her hand towards the duo in a bit of a defensive manner, as if to ward away their woeful outcries, "I was looking for Itachi... Have you seen him?"

"Uuuuuhhhmmm..." Molly lifted her hand to her chin. Had she? She didn't think she quite remembered seeing him pass by, "I-"

"We!" Tobi spoke up, swiftly covering Molly's mouth with a gloved hand. He drew the short blonde back in his direction, turning his head from side to side rapidly as though to portray a shifty look that his hidden eyes couldn't accomplish. "We may have seen him somewhere...! But... well, we can only tell you that information, if you decide to have a sit down and join in our game!"

 _Tick._ An anger point popped up against her forehead, "By then he'll already be gone..."

"But by the time you go looking for him, he'll be gone too!" Tobi added, finger waggling childishly before gently 'booping' against her nose - a tap, which she recoiled from.

"So what you're telling me is it's pointless either way." Steadfast, Hailey stared at the two completely unfazed.

Molly's head tipped haphzardly a few times from side to side, shoulders shrugging as if to declare that Hailey overall had a point in this situation, but Tobi wasn't having it. He immediately broke ino the most obnoxiously high pitched whine one could muster of his age and gender, "C'mooon! C'mon c'mon c'mooon! It'll be fun!"

Her expression, bland an unenthusiastic.. remained just that way: Bland and Unenthusiastic. "Fine. What is this game we're playing then?"

In the next moment, every one of the girls, and several members from the Akatsuki, were all seated around a giant arrow spinboard, handcrafted from cardboard. "Truth or Punishment!" Molly declared loudly.

The premise of the game seemed a bit.. Off?

Lisa's brow climbed, lips quirking suspiciously, "Don't you mean... Truth or Dare?"

"Nope." Molly raised her finger, tipping her head to offer a gleamingly innocent smile of joy and welcome, "Dares are inevitable things that happen to you when you don't tell the truth in this game!" She... seemed far less innocent saying that than she did just the moment before.

"Wait, I'm confused..." Hailey spoke up, "How will you be able to tell when someone is lying..?"

"Well, Sasori..." Molly continued on, motioning her sleeved hands over to the redhead with his nose buried in a book. "He studies the human body really intensely and is a master of the underlying details of human psychology! So when you're lying, he'll _definitely_ be able to tell!"

Lisa's head seemed to be spinning, a face full of confusion, "Wait - He's a human polygraph? Someone explain what the Hell's going on!"

The small blonde took a seat, raising her hands to explain much more slowly and concisely so that everyone would understand the rules. "Truth or Punishment is a game where you spin this spinner," Albeit a poorly made spinner made from cardboard that looked as if it would hardly spin, but neither here, nor there, "and whoever spinned it has to receive a question from the person it landed on. They have to answer that question _100% truthfully_ , or they have to do a 'dare' that is whatever the question-asker's choice."

"So basically, what you're telling me, is this is an off-the-wall mixture between Truth or Dare and Spin the Bottle." Lisa dryly replied, though was more or less completely ignored by Molly.

"Spin the bottle involves kissing," Hailey shook her head, "So frankly, this game frightens me a bit more."

Hidan's lips twitched to life with a crooked, toothy grin, "I like the sound of this game."

Immediately without a second guess nor moment of hesitation, Hailey shot up from the floor, only to be pushed back down into a sitting position by Tobi, who chimed a mischievous, "Nope!" THIS WAS BECOMING A GAME OF CAPTIVES!?

Amber's palms were being rubbed vigorously against her cheeks, the thoughts of this game producing terrible thoughts of her own, "I don't think this is a good idea."

"Well, damn, seems a bit late. And this came from Molly's mind?" Lisa looked to Molly in disbelief. Was she not supposed to be the innocent one out of their bunch, though? Y'know, second only to that one girl that barely ever showed up?

"I honestly think Tobi had more of a hand in this," Amber murmured, shifting her brown eyes towards the masked man skeptically, only to received a split second of a dark glint coasting through the shadow of the eyehole in his mask.

Oh.

No.

At that moment, Amber tried to get up too, only to, like Hailey, be pushed back down into a sitting position.

"Nope!" Tobi chimed once more.

Skye was shaking in her boots. One couldn't almost quite literally hear the sound of her rattling inside her clothes like a storm-shaken leaf. She dared not even utter a sound, lest she draw attention to herself.

"Any parameters to these questions?" Lisa questioned, clearly not for no reason.

As if it was growing to be his favorite word or something of the like, the swirly masked boy lifted his head from his now criss-cross sitting position, "Nope!"

"Ready, Sasori?" Molly questioned, only to receive a dry gaze and haphazard, pitiful shrug.

And so, the spinner began to spin, surveying the present Akatsuki members with a broken clatter that circled a little better than expected. Who knows how they managed to pull that off.

Molly, expectantly watching the edge of the arrow turn, ignored the way the others in the gathered circle began to wince whenever it seemed to slow as it pointed towards them. She was eager to see just who would be asking her a question. And so, it finally came to a stop in front of Deidara - the grumpy blond shinobi who seemed like he never wanted to be a part of this in the first place - they must have used the same magic to get him to participate as they did to get the spinner to work.

He glanced up with a bland, disinterested blue eye, searching through his mind for a suitable question. Did it matter? He had nothing he was intrigued about asking.

Deidara rolled his eye and bit the game's bait, muttering the most simplistic question he had in his arsenal, "Is art fleeting or eternal hm?" If anything, he would at least be able to tug at Sasori's chords off of this. After all, what other answer could she have other than 'fleeting'? It was the _right_ answer-

"Neither," Molly casually piped up as if it were the easiest question she had ever been asked.

The two artistic boys of the Akatsuki jolted uncomfortably, both sending her strange expressions across the circle, brimming with a disdainful aura.

"So, yeah, you're gonna take a punishment from this, aren't you yeah?" His brow raised, only to receive a quick shake of the head from Molly.

"No way! I answered the way I thought was true!" She waggled her finger to him, turning her nose up to speak matter-of-factly, "Actually! The question you asked was an opinion question, so there isn't a wrong answer at all! Maybe you should be careful with the questions you ask."

"SO THERE ARE PARAMETERS." Lisa shot, once again being completely ignored by Molly.

The blond bomber leaned back, arms folding tightly over his chest whilst his gaze fell narrow on her face. Neither? What the Hell was she thinking anyway? He'd show her one day - maybe give her a good luck at the explosives in his arsenal and see if she would change her mind. His thoughts were interrupted as he felt a sudden bump on his leg. He glanced up, seeing Molly shuffling the cardboard spinner in his direction.

"Tch." He flicked it haphzardly, watching it twist about unsteadily until falling on a panicking Amber.

The brunette glanced up quickly, fingers wrapping into the fabrics of her shirt as her cheeks burned at the possibilities of what this game could become. For some reason, attractive guys and teenage girls just didn't mix in a game like this. "Um..." She slowly drawled, looking away from his face. Damn, she was terrible at coming up with questions.

"Have you ever had a girlfriend?" AND _THAT'S_ THE FIRST QUESTION SHE OUTS WITH? Her eyes seemingly dilated, staring intently at nothing at all, _'I'm an idiot, oh my God.'_

Deidara's brow raised, arms folding as he looked at her - ignoring the way Lisa seemed to be cackling quietly under her breath, "Nah. Never had time for anything like that yeah. I have way more important things to do with my time... hmn..."

"Or." Lisa spoke up, hands raising in his direction, "You wanted a girlfriend mega bad, but everyone where you're from mistook you for a girl, right?"

His lips turned up into an exaggeratedly steep pout, eyes narrowing sharply. It wasn't until he hears Sasori snort under his breath that his cheeks began to burn a deep read, "You little miserable-"

"Amber's turn!" Tobi quickly interjected, turning the arrow himself, due to Amber's hesitation, and pointing it in his direction. His impatience had been getting the better of him, and now, he looked expectantly to the brunette for a question like an obedient puppy, "Okay okay so um."

Amber's finger raised, prepared to call out the fact that she never actually spun it, only for Tobi to continue on with the next question.

"Make it a hard one," Hidan spout, leaning back, "This shit's getting boring already."

"Right!"

Amber cursed her luck, seeing as everyone insisted on turning the difficulty up on _her_ turn. It was just her luck, wasn't it?

"Out of all the people here, which one do you like the least?" Tobi piped up.

Amber's eyes dilated. What? Were they throwing her under the bus? Could she just say she didn't dislike anyone? No. The mastermind behind a sweet demeanor, Tobi, had weaved that question together in a way that made in impossible to evade answering. But if she said she didn't like someone, it could potentially make their relationship rocky during their stay. Gosh, the last thing she wanted was drama. Maybe she was just blowing it all out of proportion...

"Jeez," Lisa piped up, hunching forward with an eye narrowed surveyingly, "Good job, Tobi, you broke her."

"I like all of you guys..." May as well cushion the blow and go for the easy answer, "But I like him the least." She pointed a finger to Hidan.

"Lie." Sasori spoke up, causing a chill up the brunette's spine. It was a lie. She hadn't had nearly enough interaction with Hidan to like him the least - same with Skye. If she actually had to pick someone she liked the least...

"Ohoho... This just got interesting." Hidan grinned widely, hands trapped behind his head as he reclined, "Good job, kid. Now lay a good punishment on 'er."

' _I think... it would be...'_ Tobi. He had given her the most trouble - invading her personal space, loudly echoing the halls, constantly barging into their room... But at the same time, she found herself too afraid to hurt his feelings.

Tobi tipped his head towards Amber, intrigue washing over him, "For punishment..." He lifted a gloved finger to her direction, a sudden chilly aura radiating, "You have to take the person you _really_ like the least and you have to go into the closet with them!" He sounded like an accusatory little child, like he had simply said the most scandalous thing. In fact, he and Molly even broke into a chorus of oo's and ahh's like children too.

Once again - as before - Tobi had constructed that punishment far too well. It was basically like doing two things in one. Damn. And if she were to lie again, she would just be found out...

Amber slowly stood up, looking away with red burned into her face. Damn it, didn't she call it? This whole game was going to become the same as wild teenagers having provocative fun when left alone at home with their parents out. Never had she done something like this - and never did she think she would. She gripped her fingers into her arm, clearing her throat, "C-c'mon, Tobi.. Let's hurry up and go."

"Hot damn!" Lisa shouted, grinning just as widely as crookedly as Hidan.

"Good luck..." Hailey murmured sympathetically. At least someone still had a heart.

And with that, Amber and Tobi were off to take the walk of shame.

 **A/N: :3 I'm a little sneaaaaak...**

 **I'm a little sneaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkk~...**

 **Whatttt?**

 **Why?**

 **Don't mind me! I'm not doing anything! I'm not a sneaky snaketh.**

 **Anywho! I hope everyone's enjoying this! And yes, this is only part 1, in case you didn't say. There will be another part to this - I wouldn't leave you hanging, my melodies.**

 **Let me know what you think in the comments! Don't forget about Deviantart and the Poll either! Check them out if you feel you want to - NO PRESSURE!**


	11. Chapter 10 Pt 2: Truth or Denial

_'How mortifying..'_

Even in the dark depths of the small closet that the two were forced into, she could hear the lot of them whispering over her misfortune - like jovial school girls. If the dare itself weren't bad enough - just the action of having to sit in the closet this way with this boy -, it was made much worse by the assumptions that the group seemed to be making as they continued the game.

"This was the dare." Amber finally spoke up through the silence. Her arms were fastened tightly around her risen knees by the hook of her intertwined fingers, and she'd shuffled back across the floor into a cramped corner. "Just to go into the closet. That's it." It was less of a question and more of a declaration for clarification. If she made it sound more like she were asking, then she would probably have to deal with him suddenly sparking up some sort of secondary tasks. At the moment though, he never specified to anything else, but unfortunately this meant that he never specified how long either.

"Yup!" She could hear him chime, causing her shoulders to raise and an eye to close from the higher-pitched -not to mention loud- voice he replied with.

His answer, however delivered in an irritating manner, caused her to breathe a subtle sigh of relief. No expectations. No provocations. No actions that would have her disappointed in herself for being subjected to this sort of peer pressure. Maybe this wasn't so bad.

In the midst of her relieved sigh, her voice swung up an octave, causing a high pitched yelp to fall in place of her steadying breath - "Tobi!" She shouted in a scolding tone.

"Yup?" Just as carefree as he had been just a moment ago, and seemingly the same distance away too, but...

She could have sworn...

The silence lingered for a moment before the brunette quickly shifted her head to the left, a slight layer of coloring rising in her cheeks as she faced the wall, "Did... Was that you?"

"Was what me?" He questioned absent-mindedly.

Was she crazy? She could have sworn she had heard the slightest twinge of mischief leaking into his voice, but that wasn't right... right? He was a trouble-maker, and a bit obnoxious, but that was all unintentional, right?

Still, she continued her sentiment whilst pressing her hand against the floor and pushing herself further into the corner, "I felt something touch my leg - so I thought I'd ask, rather than blame you."

"Ooh..." The swirly-masked boy trailed off quietly, seeming to really take in what information Amber had just offered. Humming thoughtfully in a way that could almost be described as mocking in a sense, the way he did so in such a whimsical, almost musical manner, "Nope!" He shook his head, even if it wouldn't be seen through the dark the two were submerged in, "Maybe there's a ghost in here! OH!"

He suddenly spoke up as if his own suggestion had stricken fear into his heart, "That's scary to think about! We're not alone in here!"

Amber's brown eyes seemed to grow momentarily to the size of saucers, "I'm- Tobi! There's no such thing as ghosts, I hope you know!" She certainly never thought she'd have to relay that age-old message to someone of his age, but clearly he couldn't retain it on his own.

"But Amber someone touched your leg! I'm scared!" He was in a full-scale panic, the sound of him shuffling around the closet suddenly clear, and in response, the brunette pushed herself further into the corner, attempting to hug her knees closer and become however small a ball that she could be to avoid his sweeping movements.

"I'm gonna need you to calm down..." She murmured to herself, only to find him abruptly latched onto her as if she were some sort of stuffed animal - "Tobi!" Her words were muffled by the feeling of fabric and what she assumed to be his chest pressed into her face.

"Hold me!"

No wonder she disliked him so much! His immaturity was probably one of the most infuriating things she had come across in this world. Brow twitching, complements of aggravation, her palms flattened up against his shoulders, attempting to pry him off of her, "No!"

Outside of the room, the resuming gameplay came to a halt, the lot of the other participants looking towards the closet with...well, mainly mixed emotions - apathy, confusion, concern, and amusement, just to name a few.

"I think maybe we should intervene..." Hailey trailed momentarily, planting her fingers against her chin gently whilst oblivious to the spinner coming to a slow in Lisa's direction.

As if her words had triggered the universe to step in, however, the closet door opened.

"I went into the closet to you," Amber spoke up, vacating the small, cramped room with clear disdain on her face, "That was the dare, so I finished it." She paused her stride just a few steps out of the closet, her brow furrowing in unmatched confusion as her gaze shifted between each member of the circle she'd been apart of prior to her dare.

Sasori rocking baby pigtails? Hidan in a speedo? Molly with facepaint that made her look eerily similar to Kisame?

"What..." Amber began, only to briskly shake her head. Her eyes. They burned-

"Well, the game didn't stop while you were having fun in the closet," Lisa spoke up, a clear smirk on her face that caused Amber to jolt, mouth opening as if to protest that disgustingly ambiguous sentiment.

"It was super fun!" Tobi brightly piped up, plopping down at Molly's side as if the entirety of the last ten minutes or so just didn't phase him in the least. Amber, on the other hand, slowly sat back down, face still burning and every inch of her body feeling like it was overheating from the sheer embarrassment of the situation.

"Speaking of fun," Lisa began again, gaze lowering to the spinpad in front of her. Her wicked line of sight crawled across the circle, falling on Hailey, who recoiled from her gaze.

"AH!" Hailey quickly began to scoot backwards at an impossible speed, nearly ten feet away from her original place in the circle in only a couple of seconds. Her blue eyes warily observed the spinpad, then as her head turned away bracingly, she let herself peek across the way to their delinquent 'friend', or in this case, her tormentor. "H-have mercy? Remember, I'm not single!" She piped up, pleading in the hopes of obtaining just a little shred of mercy.

"Oh, this has nothing to do with your relationship status..." But it did have something to do with her status itself. If one wanted to hit a Hailey, she hit her in the reputation. Leaning back, arms folded, Lisa crooked her head to the side, "Why'd you pretend you didn't know what..." She paused, taking a momentary glance to each of the present Akatsuki members, " _This anime_ is?"

The young girl's body wavered as if abruptly spineless, her face comically pale and her eyes a large, matching white, "Ah oh, well. I didn-"

"Hey," Lisa interrupted, tipping her head and exuding a menacing stare that would have put a couple of the S-ranked criminals present to shape. Her smile jagged, she looked intently - intensely, "You really don't wanna know what punishment I have in store."

Another electric-like jolt, and Hailey was slumped for a brief time, before remembering her posture and returning stiffly straight. "Well, I really hadn't watched it in a while!" She clarified, folding her arms with a clear pout, "Besides. We're almost seniors in high school. Wouldn't it be a little childish to still be watching cartoons?"

"It's not a cartoon!" Molly spoke up, cheeks puffing up, "So it doesn't matter if we're almost seniors or not!"

"Molly," Hailey quickly spoke up, expression bland with a disappointment drawl of disinterest, "It's a cartoon. No matter how you try to change it - a rose by any other name-"

"What are we talking about?" Tobi inquired, shifting between the two and tipping his head in quick twitches similar to a curious bird. These motions were swiftly halted by Molly's hand shooting up to cover his eyehole with a bit more-than-intended force, "Not right now, Tobi!"At least to supplement the extra force, she gently pat the mask with the perch hand's fingers.

"That doesn't answer my question, you know," Lisa spoke up, "You said what you think about it - but you didn't say why... Unless..." The dark eyed girl spoke up, leaning back to settle her ankle against her lower thigh and fold her arms across her chest, "You're just telling us you're embarrassed by it."

The blonde quickly shifted her head away, narrowing her eyes. Being cornered wasn't exactly one of her favorite pass times... As simple as the question seemed, it was actually quite a bit more difficult, "I wasn't embarrassed!"

"Lie." Sasori spoke up - he didn't know the context of the conversation, but he could at least see something as blatant as the desperate lie she as pumping out.

"No!" Hailey spoke up again, desperation climbing whilst her hands hit the floor in front of her, "I wasn't embarrassed, I was ashamed!" It was more frustration than a sorrowful proclamation, her lips parting to release a heavy exhale purely born of exasperation, "I wouldn't want someone to see that and connect it to me. Do you know what someone seeing that would _do_ to me?!" Her palms hit the floor once more, "My reputation would have been dragged through the mud!"

Lisa never spoke of a penalty for the lying, but seeing this had always been something she'd wanted to inquire about, she merely took the opportunity of Hailey's clearly emotional displeasure to try setting another question or two in place - or maybe more of a question disguised as an accusation, "Why's that? 'Cause it's for geeks?"

"Uh, yes?" Hailey quickly sputtered, pressing her hands now onto her own lap whilst leaning forward, a look in her eyes that basically foretold of it being common knowledge. "You can call me the bad guy all you like, but you know full-well I'm telling the truth."

"It's not for geeks!" Molly huffed once more, determination brimming in her child-like eyes, "If you like it, then you should watch it! It doesn't matter what other people think!"

While normally Amber wouldn't speak up in a situation such as this, she ran her palm around her neck, brown eyes circling around before opting to guide their field of view off somewhere else. "She's kind of right, though... I mean. Sure, in a perfect world, you watch what you watch and like what you want, but..." Her head tipped to the as if attempting to quell the sensation of heat building from the combination of both putting herself on the spot, and speaking against what seemed to be the popular opinion, "...this isn't the perfect world, you know..."

"People look down on you for liking things like that... and personally, I wouldn't want that extra trouble..." Amber continued, stopping only after she finished before tipping her head to Lisa for a slight push in her perspective. "I mean... You wouldn't tell your whole... rough... posse..." she continued hesitating momentarily as if searching for words that wouldn't be offensive, "You wouldn't want them to know you'd watch that stuff, right..? It'd make you look bad."

"My _rough posse_?" Lisa echoed, brow raising sharply. Her head shifted to both sides momentarily, back against the side of the couch. "Nah - they wouldn't care about _that_ , but I'm sure they'd be _pretty sore_ about the idea of a _rough girl like me_ hanging out with a bookworm like you," She shot back, dripping venom.

The room was silent only momentarily, Amber sinking back with her fingers intertwining into her lap, "I didn't mean it like that... I meant-"

"No no, it's cool," Lisa spoke up, dismissively shaking her head whilst waving her hand to the lot of them, "You're talking about me liking what I like. And I totally get that - I wouldn't want you to kill your reputation." She propped her elbow up on the back of the couch's arm, whilst she retracted her legs and bounded to her feet, "So how 'bout we just - not talk."

Hailey folded her arms, quickly standing as well, "You're being completely immature!" She propped her hands up on her hips, narrowing her eyes, "Maybe you have the reputation where you do whatever you want whenever you want? But, be honest with me - would you _ever_ be caught dead talking to _me_ if we were back home? There's a difference between talking high and mighty about how you are here when no one's around to tell you otherwise! If not, this wouldn't be the first time outside of your _long track record of trouble_ that I'd ever even heard of you!"

"No, y'know I wouldn't have talked to you back home either," Lisa shot back, mimicking the blonde by settling her hands against her own hips, "not cause I'd be embarrassed, but because I typically don't have a great time chatting with the stuck-up Holier-than-thou brats, _Prin-cess._ "

Okay. Both of them were making really good arguments. And that was a problem. Still, Amber raised her hands, standing up with the two and moving to get a bit closer to the confrontation, "Hey, maybe we should just calm down."

"Butt Out." The two chorused simultaneously, causing Amber to recoil momentarily, before returning to her place just a second later, "I'm _Just_ trying to help!"

"I don't need help from somebody like you," Lisa retorted, argumentative scoffing following.

"I seriously don't need this," Amber rolled her eyes briskly. Normally she wouldn't be so outspoken, but after being pulled into a game she didn't want to play, all because of their insistance, only to have this argument come around on her was really leaving quite the bitter taste in her mouth. She turned on her heel, walking away.

"Guys! Stop!" Molly spoke up, looking between the two. A little authorative spark rose up in her, displeasure wracking her features whilst those large eyes cast commanding gazes between the two of them, "What happened to sticking together!?"

"If she doesn't want to, that's fine," Hailey turned briskly, her initial attitude seeming to resurface as she shifted her head away and rose her nose to the air in the opposing direction, "I don't think we need to be working with someone that has such a poor attitude anyhow. Especially if every debate will turn into an argument."

"Oh yeah," Lisa shot back, "Because it's totally my attitude, right? It's not because we've got to worry about you jumping and ditching us as soon as someone comes along with some status, huh? Totally not you." her eyes briskly rolled, voice growing lower as she murmured, "Shifty bit-"

"Stop!" Molly demanded again, looking at the two, "I'm serious!"

They looked at one another, then to Molly. Hailey briskly rolled her eyes, turning on her heel to walk away to where it was assumed she would be returning to her room, while Lisa stormed out the door, likely to get a little fresh air in the forest. The Akatsuki members present, all mildly confused, and most more-or-less disinterested, looked around at one another in silence while it seemed Skye had successfully evaded the conflict, as well as detection, disappearing to who-knows-where.

"So's the game over?" Hidan folded his arms, goosebumps on his skin as he sat more or less bare aside from his small article of clothing, "I'm fucking freezing."

 **A/N: There we are... So this was pretty necessary. And I know, Skye seems to hardly be a part of anything, but she'll have her moments. She's just a precious cinnabon, okay.**

 **EITHER WAY. IT SEEMS LIKE CONFLICT STRIKES AGAIN. DANG IT SOCIETY. STOP PUSHING PEOPLE INTO A BOX AND MAKING THEM AFRAID TO LIKE WHAT THEY LIKE.**

 **Please review if you loved~! I love to see what people think!**


	12. Chapter 11: A New Perspective

**A/N: HELLO HELLO! I know it's been quite a while but I am here! I'm working hard to grind out chapters and make sure I don't fall too far out of practice!**

 **Thank you for all of you that have been waiting and loyally keeping up with me! I appreciate you all~!**

 **PLEASE ENJOY!**

Well that had gone swimmingly. It was meant to be a harmless game - no backlash, no quips or below-the-belt shots-, and the plan was for all of them to find something that really bonded them together. The more they had stayed together, the more they started talking and enjoying one another's company a bit, but there would be moments that would just confirm their deep-seated suspicions. However much they began to get along didn't change the fact that they were strangers at their core.

They played off of the moment and attempted to mix and mingle, but they weren't nearly comfortable with themselves enough to let someone else in. They couldn't take the initiative to hang out together without some sort of insane happenings, or just common conveniences forcing them together.

"I should have expected as much..." Molly thought, and as the conclusion rang to her, she dropped her head, sighing gently. "Maybe... I should try to push them together somehow..?"

As it was, Molly had been being pulled around by Tobi like usual, the same Tobi who was now taking the opportunity to dramatically lament over how much Amber didn't like him. Hailey had been spending most of her time in her room, venting her problems out to her roommates, which was honestly a usual thing - now with newly sprinkled passive aggression on top. Amber was gravitating more and more to that isolated, empty room at the end of the hallway, and Lisa hadn't really left her room too much.

There were options... The question was, which one to take...

"Ah!" Molly's sleeved fist collided into her palm, a sweet idea popping into her mind, "I know! I'll just-"

"You! Hm..!"

As if she really needed to ask - with that impediment there was really only one person that it could have been demanding attention -, the question was: "Who..me..?" She hesitantly pointed to herself, brow furrowing, considering she had exchanged very few words with the blond in question.

"Yeah, you hmph," His hand abruptly shoved into Molly's back, though mainly his fingers pressing into her shoulder blades -probably with good reason, considering the mouths and all. "Today's the day you get enlightened, kid hm!" He sounded awfully proud, and the way he addressed her with 'kid', despite the meager age difference between them made her think that he felt pretty authoritative, being someone around was finally younger than him.

"Enlightened..?" She questioned, however, brow furrowing curiously as she looked back at him from her space of being practically shoved onward.

What a pain! She didn't remember? Ordinarily being shown something from himself should have been considered a kind of honor. To think she didn't even remember what he had said in the first place; typical of anyone that spent time with an airhead like Tobi. "I told you I was gonna show you what art _really_ is, yeah."

He did his best to continue sounding cool, if not slightly mysterious, but inside he was swelling for the chance to show off and come off much more proud and haughty.

"Ahhh..." She trailed, fumbling with her thoughts to try finding a suitable solution before speaking up. She looked away, then back up at him, blue eyes shifting out of hesitance, "W-well that sounds... great! But... I kinda... have something i'm supposed to d-"

"You're a captive, yeah. What else could you possibly have to do hm?" He didn't halt his pushing, a gesture that caused a comically large bead of sweat to appear at her cheek.

Despite her pleas, she was ushered forcibly outside in order to apparently witness _'probably the only thing that'll make sense to you from an artistic perspective'_ , or at least that was the way Deidara had worded it.

Around that moment, the door nearest their ordeal opened, Lisa's head popping out as her dark eyes surveyed the area momentarily. She wondered what that was all about, but she never spoke out about it. Her head leaned back, taking a haphazard gaze into her room. Konan was reading over something casually, and Pein wasn't there - most-likely still going over some stuff in the study.

It was boring. Maybe even beyond boring.

She couldn't go ranting to the origami chick about some petty argument she didn't know about that happened during some weird truth-or-dare-style party involving majority of their criminals... that she _also_ didn't know about.

Besides, she really didn't want to talk to someone like Konan about it. ' _She just screams uptight...'_ As the thought came to her mind, her brows knit together for a split second. Her hand casually pushed the door open enough for her to ease through, and she casually shut the door behind her. "I just need a breather or somethin'..."

With that in mind, she casually slid her hands into the pocket of the thick black pants she had bought from their shopping outing. They were similar to sweatpants, but she could feel the cuffs cling to her body a bit more. They were much more lightweight too - almost more comfortable and barely there than actual sweatpants. She eased around aimlessly through hallway doorways and peeked through each door, excluding that of Kisame and Itachi's room. Not only was she not interested in checking into Hailey's activities, but it was the only door in the hall that was fully shut for possibly just that reason.

It was like picking at random, but after literally moments of deliberating, she leaned casually against the door frame.

"Can I help you?" Sasori questioned dryly. He never looked up from his work desk, fingers expertly fiddling with pieces whilst assembling what appeared to be the ball-joint structure of a shoulder.

"I saw your boyfriend disappeared," Lisa spoke up just as casually. She folded her arms and kicked off from the wall, coming to sit at the edge of Sasori's bed. "I just thought I'd give you some company or something."

"Spare me." Though it came off like a witty, sarcastic shot, his expression didn't sound aggravated nor exasperated. Truth be told, she wasn't causing him much trouble. She wasn't too energetic, and he wouldn't have to worry about her getting in the way; he also wasn't such a novice that he would be distracted by a little uninteresting conversation.

Lisa rolled her eyes, a small grin on her face whilst she leaned to lie her back against the surface of the bed, "I just thought you'd be lonely at all."

"Or you find that you have nothing to do after your falling out, and are using me as a convenient pass time."

"..." She had to admit it. The way he managed to completely break down the pieces of a situation was bordering on the line between fascinating and downright terrifying. "Meh." She scoffed dismissively regardless, offering only a lackluster shrug in response, "It's not like it was my fault - you saw that shit, didn't you?"

"Against my will." He had been acting as the game's polygraph, after all, "It was a pointless argument."

"Of course you'd say that," She blandly huffed, "You don't really emote."

Sasori didn't respond to the quip at hand. He wasn't much of one up for debate, nor did he specifically look to prove her point wrong. He could care less, and only entertained her ranting because it wasn't exasperating enough to evade. Regardless, he could feel that if he just kept quiet, she would probably get more out of this than-

"But I'll bite." She sat up, hunching over to set her elbows upon her knees, and her chin between her hands, "What do you think then, puppet guy?"

Wonderful.

"You don't want to hear my opinion," He took to replying instead.

"Sure, I do." She dully -near-sarcastically- retorted. "You don't care, so I know if anything you'll tell me the harsh truth."

His head turned only halfway, brown eyes slowly easing back to the corners to peer over his shoulder at her. His expression translated roughly to something along the lines of ' _seriously?'_ , but as lack of words in translation could apparently be, Lisa impatiently gestured her hands up, "Well?!"

The redhead sighed. Scratch what he had thought before regarding her not being exasperating. Lazily, he turned around in his chair, leaning casually into the back of it and settling his chin idly against the back of his hand, "Look..."

"CAN You BELIEVE she said that?" Hailey folded her arms roughly over her chest, leaning back and pouting irritably, "If anything, she's just being immature! There's a big picture to be had with this, you know, and she's missing it completely!" Her fingers massaged into her temples softly in an attempt to alleviate her worked nerves, "Now everything's all tense, and stressed, and... Do you know what stress does to your skin?"

She glanced over to see Kisame's expression bland at the mention of skin. He glanced down and then at his own rigid hands before his gaze slowly climbed up to meet hers, "Nah. Can't say I do."

"I'm sorry, honey..." She trailed quietly, lifting her hand in an easing gesture, "...We can find you some nice skin care techniques or something. I don't know exactly what works for blue and... _that_ rough, but I'm sure we can find some natural things y'know?"

"Right," The ex mist shinobi pressed himself up from his bed, coiling his arms back to stretch his spine, then likewise popping his neck the same way he had previously.

"Ew..." And just as before, Hailey seemed quite disturbed. Regardless, she bounded up to sit upon her shins in a kneeling position, head tipping inquisitively, "And where are you off to?" She questioned - he wouldn't just leave her in the middle of her rant, would he?

"Got some stuff I gotta get to. I still have a job," He retorted dryly, though he seemed to be more amused by her neediness than anything.

She nodded affirmatively, "I know that! Even if that job appears to be keeping us captives where we are." Her dull countenance was matched by the sassy quirking of a brow, but aside from a snicker of sorts, it went relatively unnoticed by Kisame. The sharkman only casually opened the door to take his leave, though at the absence of his retreating form, Itachi became visible in the doorway.

Hailey retreated back a bit in her seating, appearing a bit more timid by his presence. She had meant to speak with him before, but with all the craziness regarding the game, and her mind being preoccupied by her current circumstance, she had honestly forgotten about it until now.

"Itachi..." She spoke up meekly, watching his expression a bit carefully. Despite the room -that had now only the two in it- being quite decently sized, the tension made it feel terribly cramped.

The blonde watched his expression in passing, and though he never turned his head toward her, she could see his eyes shift in her direction. Her pent up breath slowly began to release out of a calming relief; he seemed completely calm and relaxed. From the way Kisame had reacted during his first initial absence, she would assume she had no turbulent emotions to worry about, but coming from the man that -as she knew-, murdered his family in cold blood, she had no idea what kind of response to expect.

"I wanted to talk to you before!" She started up with her usual charismatic way of speaking in the hopes he would accept it and let it be.

As expected, he responded with silence, sitting down on his own bed and turning his head slightly in her direction.

"The other day, when I was talking about-"

"You didn't offend me." He spoke up for what was probably the first time since they had been there. In fact, the level of serenity in his voice sounded quite uncharacteristic for a person with his...backstory.

"O-oh..!" Her hand placed gently against her lips thoughtfully. The pallid skin of her cheeks began to glow a soft pink, brows knitting contemplatively together. Not just uncharacteristic in its tranquility, but his voice was so soft and smooth that even something so insignificant in speech could be seen as downright attractive. Noticing the warmth in her own cheeks, she shook her head vigorously and likewise attempted to dismiss that reaction, "That's good! I was worried..!"

Her expression gleamed with slight bliss before drying out into a somewhat passive aggressive sideglance, "I feel I've somehow caught myself between far too many offended parties already, so that's quite the blessing."

His coal-like eyes fixated calmly in her direction, causing the young girl to light up.

"Oh..!" Most-often, she had gotten so used to the one she ranted to being Kisame, and even then, she was pretty positive that Itachi had been ignoring her initially. After coming to that conclusion, she never really expected him to listen anymore... The fact that he may actually swelled her with a little excitement.

"Well, I could probably get another perspective in this, but I'm almost certain you'll be on my side after I explain the situation!" She immediately assured, propping up to the edge of her mattress and staying on her side of the boundary, despite their beds being wedged together a bit too close for most's comforts.

"It's a silly confrontation to begin with," Sasori spoke up most indifferently.

"That's 'cause you don't get it," Lisa shot back a somewhat nonchalant response in an apathetic tone, but the look on her face showed that she appeared to be somewhat offended. "It's kinda important to know if somebody doesn't really wanna deal with you. You don't want to trust somebody that doesn't give a shit, y'know?"

A very slight string of amusement weaved itself into his expression. He shook his head, eyes closed, making him appear much older and wiser, despite his body appearing to be belonging to that of a teenager. "You still have the mind of a child."

Her brows furrowed aggressively and her full expression likewise twisted into a bemused scowl, "I don't like being played for an idiot. She's stuck up and self-absorbed, and I don't wanna know her."

"You didn't seem to have much of an issue beforehand." His head tilted. While he was supposed to be acting as an unbiased party, or a mediator of sorts, he had to admit that it was a bit amusing. He was well-versed in the art of _pulling strings_ , for lack of a better phrase, and he certainly knew just what to say or do to influence one's emotions. This, however, was much more subtle, and thus a bit more of an enjoyed puzzle, "You had gotten along with her fine until you found out her potential flaw was being ashamed of her previous involvement in something you like. It offends you because it makes you feel like your hobby or enjoyment is socially unacceptable. In other words...Heh. You're prideful."

The dark haired girl glowered at the puppet across from her, causing her to fold her arms roughly in response, "So what the Hell does that mean then?"

Sasori's brief bout of amusement feathered out in favor of a monotonous face, "This is silly, and you're childish."

"Childish!?" Hailey's pout huffed out even further at fathoming the idea that Itachi would even consider those words to describe this, let alone let them dare appear on his tongue. This was a serious situation and it was completely inappropriate to downplay it that way. "This is important... I was hoping you would take it seriously."

"It's a disagreement in taste and social decisions." Well, when the Uchiha put it that way, it suddenly seemed a lot less significant...

"It's..." The blonde fold her arms, pouting softly, "It's much more important than just that... She completely insulted me in the process! You weren't there, but the escalation was absolutely ugly. How could you call it childish?" She stood by what she said, turning her nose up slightly in response, but the dark haired male didn't seem the slightest bit fazed by the new information.

He decided to put it as simply as possible, "If it's too much for you to deal with, then don't befriend her. If her actions offend you, separate yourself from her."

"I don't think the fix is that's simple... The principle..." Hailey insisted, though she murmured it under her breath, nearly like grumbling.

Sasori uttered a soft, entertained nasal exhale, looking most intrigued by how enraged and displeased Lisa seemed to be getting. She was arguing her case so vehemently, and as far as he concerned, it wasn't even much necessary. "There's no sense in arguing over principles and hypotheticals. I could understand arguing this if it directly affected your life, but it has no direct connection to you whatsoever. You hate her for the choices she's made for her own life."

"I don't hate her. I hate what she does." Lisa's fingers pushed through her own hair, ruffling it roughly at the roots, "She's so damn stuck up. Like she can't be wrong. Why would want to be around somebody that'd throw me under the bus like that..!?"

Itachi's eyes shut, a gentle sigh easing through his lips. He wasn't exasperated, but she seemed so locked in place on her own opinion that it was otherwise impossible to get his points through her mind. "You wouldn't be so affected by this if you didn't care for her or her opinions."

"Of course I care..!" Hailey shot back. Her fingers coursed back through her hair, pushing it from her crown and back over her shoulder, "It's just..."

"SHE'S SO STUBBORN!" The two of them dropped their outbursts near-simultaneously, but as uninhibited outbursts would have it, they had their moments to rethink it after their words had managed to escape their mouths.

They were both accusing the other of their worst traits it seemed.

They both had very clear flaws, as anyone did, but when those flaws hit a sensitive spot, they couldn't be ignored anymore. They weren't angered by the actions of the other person regarding Naruto, or anime in general, or any of that; it was about how they handled it and what it could mean for them in the future. Truth be told... they were afraid for the outcome of their friendship, and by backing into their respective corners that way, they judged one another and pushed each other away without even taking the time to understand the reasons behind their motives.

"Ugh," Lisa grumbled.

Of course Itachi and Sasori saw this as a trivial matter. If everything they'd gathered by staying here was true, those two were shinobis. Their day-to-day struggle revolved around death, survival, and just trying to see how long they could keep it up.

"So what then, I should apologize?" Lisa spoke up, looking over to Sasori with a clear sign of resignation.

"Heh." The redhead waved her off dismissively, turning back around to focus on his work. He had a nice little break toying with the girl's emotion, and crushing her prideful demeanor a tad, but he really had to be returning to his work. "Do whatever you want. It's not my decision."

"Haah..." Hailey sighed gently, retracting her fingers from her temples and looking dejectedly towards Itachi, "I guess I should thank you..."

He simply nodded, nothing more said or gestured.

"Thank you," The blonde said anyhow, standing up from her perch after scooting up to the other edge of the bed. It was probably only fair that she should have been attempting to fix this situation somehow, right? She approached the door, stabilizing her thoughts with a deep breath of preparation.

"Huhm..." Lisa mumbled, hand locked firmly on the door knob of the room. She would have to say something at least, right? Probably apologize or some garbage like that...

"Cold feet?"

Lisa peered back to the redhead that was sassing her, aggravation surfacing as she twitched her lips into displeased pout, "How about you shut up!"

After that well-placed retort, Lisa turned back to the door to the room, then pushed it open and exited out -all while ignoring the amused chuckles of Sasori. Her head tipped, and she peered down the hall, gaze fixating momentarily on the door belonging to Kisame and Itachi's room. She was certain Hailey would be in there. That's where she always was.

The dark haired girl's breath fizzled out, and shutting the door to Sasori and Deidara's room behind her, she lingered for a second, then turned and walked up the hall toward the kitchen instead, "..Not now..."

Hailey, hand against her chest, likewise seemed to stare at the door for a while, hanging her head thoughtfully. "I..." She took a step back and away, then turned away from it completely, walking her way back towards her bed, "T-tomorrow perhaps..."

 **A/N: HELLOOOooO!**

 **I'm already working on the next chapter teehee!**

 **now that we're getting some Akatsuki interaction on board, you can finally start getting some relevance out of the "Akatsuki / Shame OTP Poll" That's on my profile!**

 **I'll leave it up for now, but I may switch it out for a few other polls in the future that are more related to my other stories and my incoming stories.**

 **YES, INCOMING. I'M NOT DONE YET.**

 **I HAVE A LOT OF IDEAS I WANT TO GET ONTO!**

 **Thank you so much for your patience, love, and support. I care about every single one of you. ;w;**

 **Happy Holidays, My Melodies~!**


	13. Chapter 12 Part 1: The Problem At Hand

**A/N: WHAAAAT!? Twice in one day!? Well, yes. It's the spirit of the Holidays after all! I did cut this chapter in half though. The final product after I kept it going was nearly double this length, so I thought it better if I did a little slice and dice.**

"Aaaammmberrrr!"

From inside the isolated room at the end of the hallway, Amber attempted to block out all sound she could possibly make. She even filtered out the potential noise of her breathing by cupping her hand over her nose and mouth. It was Tobi, of course, searching around for her as he had been. She really had no idea why he was so fixated on giving her grief, but she really hoped he would just leave her be.

Once she heard his voice fade out in the other direction, she gave a carefully placed sigh of relief.

She was upset...

She couldn't say particularly why, but she knew that she was. Social recharging was a normal thing - she was an introvert, and there was nothing wrong with that, she knew. With all the free time she had on her hands now, however, what with no one gathering together or talking to one another, she was almost feeling somewhat unsatisfied.

"I do like to talk..." Though she mouthed the words, they were near-silent, barely audible and mainly only loud enough to hear from within her own mind. "I like my alone time... but I don't mind hanging around..."

Honestly, she had really hoped things wouldn't escalate the way they had, but given all of their vastly different mindsets, it was to be expected. They were from totally different places in school, and likewise, totally different places in life. Trying to get along in this sort of situation was unorthodox to begin with, but adding in a topic that they all had such solid stances on, and it was very nearly impossible, really.

They just didn't mix.

With that said, she could only hope that if... _when_ , they got out of this situation, they wouldn't get angry and try to undermine her back home. She couldn't handle that kind of drama or trouble...

Despite her thinking that way, she just couldn't get herself to feel riled up about it. It was strange. Very often, she would feel herself stressing out or nearing various panic attacks just from thinking about a negative possibility - no matter how outlandish. Right now, however, the feeling of this all coming to backfire in her face at the hands of Hailey, Lisa, Molly or Skye, just seemed...

' _Hailey could do it...'_ She thought about it. Hailey was popular - beyond popular, really. Majority of the school was at her beck and call, and all she had to do was possibly frown or wink to stir an army-like reaction.

Lisa too. She may not have been the top-tier socialite, but she ran the other end of that spectrum. She was dark and crude with a brutish demeanor, and probably had a whole group of hulking bullies and dudes ready to muscle in and ruin whomever she very-well decided. That was how that kind of thing went from what she had seen.

As for Molly and Skye, honestly, she had never seen them before this incident. She couldn't even be sure they even attended her school.

' _It's a very real possibility... So why does it feel so surreal..?'_

Amber tipped her head back, the top of it hitting against the wall with a gentle thump. Her hands traced the sides of her face whilst she thought it over all again. Had she been brainwashed by this short amount of time together? She had seen what had just happened when the altercation happened in the first place. They all turned on one another...

No...tempers flared, and everyone reacted in the heat of the moment.

It was perfectly normal... They were all upset, and they handled it in different ways. No matter how many different ways she tried to reach an alternate conclusion, that's all it was. No one tried to make a jab at anyone else afterwards. The anger didn't cause everyone to turn on one another after the fact. They had all just retreated to their rooms and attempted to live separately whilst their rage quelled itself.

Honestly, she had just gotten upset because she tried to interject and got met with their circumstantial disdain. She was already flustered and embarrassed, and no one really took the time to calm down and rationally talk things out.

Still... Should they patch things up..? Not like Amber herself had the social skills to make that happen... but maybe Molly could...

The thought of them constantly relying on Molly surfaced a contemplation in her head. It didn't seem fair - after all, from first glance, anyway, Molly seemed like the youngest and possibly the most innocent of all of them. Regardless of those facts, they had been relying on her as a leader-like figure, and despite her awkwardness, she seemed like the only one that could do it.

Even with that in mind, it felt impossible to work up the nerve to organize some sort of regret and apology party herself. So basically, what she was thinking in her mind was... Unless Molly or someone else stormed in and decided to patch everything up, they were screwed, huh?

Suddenly, there were multiple hefty pairs of footsteps up the hall, each with varying degrees of weight and force. With all of those pairs of footsteps storming up the hallway at one time, it sounded like some sort of stampede.

Amber paused in place. She could hear her heart thundering in her ears, not knowing what was taking place.

She had no idea what was going on, but she felt too scared to figure out what.

Slowly but surely, she eased from her place, down on her hands and knees to start crawling over to the door of the isolated room. With each small shuffle she made towards it, the sounds got louder, and her heart hit against her chest that much harder. Her fingers eased the door open, and by poking out a bit, she could see the congregation of people huddled together near the kitchen before they split ways for Sasori and Kakuzu to come through.

She remembered writing about this before in her old fanfiction - it was something that probably all fanfiction writers knew how to incorporate. Sasori and Kakuzu specifically had medical skill, which made them act as the doctors in the Akatsuki.

If that was the case...

The brunette could feel her goosebumps raising on her skin...What was happening..?

Who was...

* * *

As the explosion sounded off, bits of leftover debris in the forms of barely present tiny portions of incinerated clay raining down like dust particles.

"What do you think now, yeah?"

Molly, head tipped and watched the explosions with very clear interest and curiosity. She had always wondered how these things would work if she were to see them in person, and she had to admit, there was a certain thrill behind seeing his explosive 'art' in person. It started off as so ordinary, like any kind of sculpted model, and once it hit its highest point, there was a sound that put to shame any sort of gunshot or firearm. Considering, she had never seen a real explosion before, she was awfully intrigued.

"It's really cool..!" She quickly replied, nodding affirmatively to his question. "I like watching them! They're kind of like fireworks!"

As the animated clay bird-like figure descended quickly, the blond Akatsuki member leaped down, taking a few steps to subtly kill his momentum, "So how about it then hm?" He pushed his hands down into his pockets, brow quirking over-confidently, "True art's an explosion! You understand that now, don't you hmn?"

"Eeeh.." The small girl rocked back and forth slightly, sleeved hands interlocked behind her back whilst she awkwardly attempted to break it gently. Finding this apparently not possible she just responded, "Nope!"

An abrupt anger tick shot up at the side of his head, visible blue eye shutting as his brow tugged in deeply, "Heh." It was a bitter, nasally chuckle from a sharply jagged smile, "Clearly that example went over your head. Must not have been a grand enough display yeah..." He flicked his hand up, a wad of clay being chewed by the mouths on his hands.

"N-no no!"

Though Molly's orbs were fixated on his moving, eating palms, she attempted to keep her head directed more towards his own, "That's not what that means."

"Hn?" Though the hand continued to chew the clay it had been fed, his line of sight diverted to her's inquisitively, "Well what exactly does it mean then, hm?" His brow raised, his nerves clearly being stressed.

"I'm not saying I don't get your art! I do!" The golden haired girl waved her hands defensively in response, "It's just...!" Her index knuckle rubbed at her lower lip, "Well..." How would she put this... She was attempting to be honest, so maybe she should just start with the good part that he probably wanted to hear. "Your art... is like... A quick moment that gives you inexplicable happiness! But.. because every explosion it's different, you'll never have the same feeling twice." She tugged at her lip carefully, "It only lasts for a few seconds and you have to enjoy it as much as you can, 'cause once it's gone it's gone!"

"Exactly hm!" His light, piercingly sharp blue eyes momentary softened, or more accurately, they were briefly set aglow. It was rare that someone saw what he had as more than just a destructive force. It was a statement! True art was fleeting, because _true_ art wasn't thing, it was an _experience_.

"But-"

"But?" His face soured just that quickly.

"Buuut!" Molly started again, attempting to find the right words to place exactly what she was trying to get out. "I think-"

"Molly Molly!"

The abrupt shouting drew both blonds attention, and as it did so, they could see the energetic Tobi come rushing in -though they both reacted with mixed expressions. While Molly seemed to light up from his incoming presence, Deidara was much more disinterested.

"Not now, Tobi hm!" Deidara shot immediately, though the orange masked Akatsuki newbie showed no signs of slowing down.

"Something happened! Something bad!"

The two's expressions sparked up quickly with a mix of concern and panic.

"What happened?!" Molly spoke up first, nearly bolting forward to ease the boy to hurry on his way to explain.

"Spit it out!" Deidara vocalized much more aggressively against Molly's gentle concern, though given some time to physically spazz his limbs out as if he were trying to get his voice to catch up to his panicking body, he finally spoke up.

"Skye's really sick!"

Molly wasted no time bypassing the two Akatsuki members as she started to sprint back towards the house. It was something she felt like she had to accept at least partial blame for. Skye had been behaving strangely the whole time, and even from the moment they had arrived, she was pale and shaking quite a bit. Of course without knowing her, one could assume those were just her ordinary traits for whatever reason, but both of them had grown more prevalent, if not severely out of hand since their arrival.

' _I should have said something... We were supposed to be sticking together...'_

Her eyes shifted down towards her own feet, watching them cover ground on her way forward whilst her mind drew out into a daze.

Meanwhile, in Zetsu and Tobi's room, the Akatsuki members had stood around for a brief moment. They seemed like they were only making sure everything was relatively fine before they left Sasori and Kakuzu to their work. However, since it was more common medicine than any kind of procedural surgery, it only left Sasori to casually oversee what was remaining.

"She okay?" Lisa spoke up, sitting down on the floor near the corner of the room - there wasn't any space for chairs or other surfaces to sit, but she didn't mind.

Sasori reviewed his check of her vitals and baseline status, then slowly proceeded to take hold of Skye's unconscious face. With his fingers pressed to either side of her jawline, near her chin, he could feel the layer of skin over bone was really all she had to offer. She was slimmer than she should have been, and her cheeks were beginning to pull in, "Okay? No. Though it isn't a matter of life or death."

The present girls all breathed a sigh of relief.

"Not yet, anyway." Luckily, he didn't give them time to tense back up before he went on to explain, "She's lacking nutrition, and her body doesn't seem to appropriately responding to the little she does take." He looked back to the other baseline tests he had run, "It looks like a deficiency."

The girls sat in silence, the lot of them appearing troubled by this new information. Thankfully it wouldn't be life-threatening, but it couldn't be allowed to persist.

Each present sitting in the room, Hailey, Lisa, and Amber sat in their own respective silence. There wasn't enough room for them to try distancing themselves from one another, and there were no applicable excuses like 'telling others' since the Akatsuki was all well-informed, and Tobi had darted out immediately to tell Molly about it.

Just as before, with no leader-figure present, an awkward silence wafted around the room for some time.

Amber began to shift uncomfortably, fingers intertwined in one another and settled against her lap. She looked up slowly, tipping her head to face towards the midground in between Lisa and Hailey, "I um... This is... a pretty bad situation." She had no idea what compelled her to speak up first, but the awkward air and tension she was presented with as a result was hardly hospitable.

"Yeah..." Lisa propped her hand against the back of her hand, staring more at her own feet than anyone or anything else, "I didn't think-"

"I'm sorry!" Hailey spoke up abruptly. She dropped her head down towards her lap where her hands were layered atop one another. The silence went on for another moment, but she attempted to just as rapidly supplement the silence to evade the awkwardness, "I felt so... cornered! I just spoke up, because I was upset, and I didn't know what to say..."

Lisa exhaled, fingers coursing through her hair, "No, you said what you thought. We're different people and we think different shit. You're ashamed of it. Simple as that."

"I..." Hailey shook her head gently, "I wish... I could say I felt otherwise, I do..." It was a lot easier to talk about with them all feeling calmly amongst one another. No one was yelling or demanding responses of sorts... It felt like a fine environment to speak one's mind. "I meant what I said... that speaking of anime... watching it. It just offers some terrible backlash... I don't have anything against you, Lisa." She turned her head, "Nor you, Amber..."

"No, I understand." Amber's breaths slowly inhaled, then exhaled, calming her nerves as she began to speak. "I um... I definitely understand..." Was it getting a little warm all of a sudden? Her face was warming, and her mouth was drying. Licking her lips, she looked up, then quickly away to begin speaking up again, "That's... what I wanted to say before..." She pressed her thumbs together, rocking them back and forward behind her intertwined fingers, "I've...Well, I lived through it... So I definitely understand..."

 **A/N: And here we have the end of Part 1! I hope you all enjoyed~! Thank you for all of your care, love, and continued support! Have a wonderful and Happy Holiday Season / Christmas~!**


	14. Chapter 12 Part 2: Our Reasons

**A/N: And the Conflict Continues! Shame Chapter 12, part 2! Here you go, everyone!**

"No, I understand." Amber's breaths slowly inhaled, then exhaled, calming her nerves as she began to speak. "I um... I definitely understand..." Was it getting a little warm all of a sudden? Her face was warming, and her mouth was drying. Licking her lips, she looked up, then quickly away to begin speaking up again, "That's... what I wanted to say before..." She pressed her thumbs together, rocking them back and forward behind her intertwined fingers, "I've...Well, I lived through it... So I definitely understand..."

The two of them began to look at her, Hailey straightforward and concerned, while Lisa only at the corner of her eye more or less with a subtle sideglance.

"What do you mean..?" The dark haired girl inquired, brow raised.

Amber swallowed again, hand entangling into her somewhat messy brown ponytail, "I uh... I was a huge fan of anime, games... a lot of other stuff. Hah..." Her brown eyes drooped ever-so-slightly, her smile hesitating to keep its place, "It was practically my life, to be honest."

She let her gaze wander to Sasori. He seemed to be getting the message, and decided to leave the room.

"If I wasn't watching it, or reading it, I was writing things based on it. Haha..." Her laugh was lackluster, if not a tad bitter, "But I used to really catch trouble for it... They used to smack my books out of my hand. Call me a geek, a nerd... pull my hair and shove me around."

"That's awful!" Hailey spoke up quickly.

"Yeah, I know..." Her brown eyes turned to Haily almost miserably, "but nobody was willing to stand up and say that. And that wasn't the worst of it."

"What about your parents?" Lisa questioned, brow furrowing to the explanation. Amber was the goody two shoes type, right..? All girls like that usually had those almost overbearing parents that stuck all close... and cared a little too much... That was how it was, right..?

"Mm..." The brunette looked off and away, "My parents were busy. They worked a lot, and by the time they got home, I was either in bed, or I'd pretend I was so I wouldn't have to tell them. They had enough to think about." Amber looked up, eyes getting a bit glossy at the recollection, though she pushed it back as though it wasn't happening. "I assumed everything would only get worse when I got to high school... but it didn't. My family moved here, and no one knew me. I could be someone different..."

Hailey's expression grew softened. "So... you pushed it all away..."

"Exactly. I started trying to forget about it, and getting used to other things instead." She smiled gently to herself. "I still would get curious when I'd see it on TV, or pass it by in the library, but I ignored it. I did better in school, and I made a couple of friends."

"But you didn't get shit from it." Lisa reasoned, "You still had to deal with ignoring something you like so you could worry about fitting in. It's like... some fake happiness from pretending to be somebody else."

"But that _became_ me." Amber hooked up her leg, her arm draped over the top of it, "At least..." She hesitated and paused reluctantly to think. "At least, I think..." It was true that she often scolded herself when her mind would wander to something like anime. She reminded herself it wasn't something to think about...

Hailey turned. Her expression looked almost shameful and apologetic, "When we saw one another at the lockers... You seemed panicked..."

Amber's expression became quite plain, if not a bit uncharacteristically outgoing, "Of course I did. If you'd seen me with some kind of anime merchandise in my locker, it would have jumpstarted everything from middle school all over again!"

"I never would have!" Hailey abruptly gaped, "I..." She seemed to go out of her way to avoid being that terrible a person. She never wanted to hurt anyone...

"Your social tier said otherwise." Amber tried to be careful about it, but it was difficult to evade. It was exactly how she thought about it. "I'm more surprised that you knew anything about the anime. I expected you to be the type that never touched the stuff."

"It was a pass time!" Hailey spoke up quickly, arms folded and back stiffening into a displeased pout. "I found it by accident. It captured my attention for a time, but..." her brows knit together. Suddenly it came off as nearly embarrassing to say... "I wasn't... Well as I got older, I just found other interests. Society just wasn't kind to people that were into those things..."

Lisa leaned back, lip coiled up of mildly aggravated inquiry, "So what? You're literally at the top of that society thing in school. You'd think you could do what you want and it wouldn't matter."

The blonde's hands smacked against the floor, leaning forward out of surprise, "Are you joking?! It's not just a title you keep forever. People look at me with expectation like it's my _job_ to be this way. If I have a fall from grace, it won't just be a little talk and a spot of gossip for a time - I'll be completely ruined! People will talk for months, maybe even years!" Her hands were locked against her head, a frown plastered on her face, "I know my friends would try to diffuse the problem, but word of mouth can only go so far..."

Lisa's expression dulled considerably, "So you're saying you have to match expectations to be happy."

"I..!" Hailey's eyes drooped into her lap, "...I have expectations to live up to. Everyone wants something for me... But it's really not as bad as you think... It's just what I'm used to." She looked across the way at Lisa, "I'm not like you... And I don't mean for that to be offensive. I just mean... I can't just expect everyone to not care about what I do and say. I just don't have that freedom."

"Freedom?!" Lisa's face probably read one of the most expressive looks that it had this entire time, "Freedom my ass." She looked up at the both of them, a frown on her face, "I do what I want because I don't care. Not because of everyone else...You think people don't have their opinions? And they don't hesitate to say what they think..." She dropped her chin roughly into her palm, "I just learned to focus on myself, but of course I care... I'm not deaf, I _hear_ the kind of things they say about me. It hurts... I just... don't think about it..."

Amber's body fidgeted uncomfortably. She didn't think Lisa was the type to get affected by something like that... It was insensitive... after all, the first time she'd seen her:

' _Nooo, thank you.'_ That was the first thing she had said about Lisa after labeling her trouble, and later speaking of her mentally as just some sort of delinquent that would probably drag her down or cause her unnecessary trouble.

"My parents don't get involved with me much." Lisa clarified the lingering issue with both her behavior and what came with it. "I only live with my dad, and he doesn't really do much. Has no idea what I do." She hadn't the right to really get angry about conclusions that they decided to draw anymore. After all, she called Hailey 'princess' for God's sake. She was just as guilty as the rest of them in that sense...

"I'm sorry..." Hailey spoke up. Though she had been evading eyecontact, she rose to meet Lisa's eyes for a moment, "If you ever need any help, or any kind of support, you can rely on me... Ah... Whenever we get back to our world..."

"You wouldn't be ashamed to be seen with me..?"

Hailey's expression changed, and the shame returned, her speech going quiet in thought provoked by the question.

"Honestly..." Amber uncharacteristically spoke up. She hesitated for a second, then shook her head a couple of times, "None of us really know what's going to happen when we get back. We don't know if we'll stay friends, or if things will change or... anything like that. We can all agree it's a lot harder to deal with this stuff than it is to talk about it..."

Her eyes shifted to the other two, and taking a breath, she continued, "So... We should just enjoy the time we have together... y'know?"

It was quiet for a moment.

That silence continued to linger on a bit longer.

"You're right." Haily began softly, "The future's unknown... but that's not to say we can't enjoy one another's company now..? Well... Despite the circumstances..."

"Since when were you so talkative?" Lisa's brow quirked, a subtle grin reminiscent of her usual teasing ways beginning to come through in that moment.

Amber's somewhat relaxed smile became much more nervous on the spot, a bead of sweat appearing at her cheek as she laughed awkwardly, "I seriously do not know. It's a little out of character for me, I think... So maybe I'm just nervous..."

From outside the door to the room, Molly tipped her head, a sincerely pleased smile on her face. Initially she moved to push the door open upon first arriving, but she had arrived just as Amber decided to speak up, so decided to take a backseat. She was expecting this to go much further, maybe even their falling out causing a much more problematic chain of events, but... much to her surprise, they managed to reconcile all on their own.

Her sleeved hand fastened over her chest as a puff of relief came from her lips.

At that moment, she pushed the door open, coming in with a blissful smile, "Well lookie! I Never expected to see you guys all in one room eh?"

"How long y'been listening in?" Lisa casually pushed, brow quirked curiously.

"Whaaaa?!" The golden blonde shoved her hands into her pocket, bliss outlining her face as she leaned forward and back idly, "I'd never!"

"Yeah, yeah. So what's your story?" Lisa added, "You've probably got something too, right?"

The blonde tipped her head thoughtfully as her blue eyes raised up to the ceiling as if searching the very depths of her mind, "Well...! I don't really... I've never really had to go through something like this..." A bit of air filled her cheek in a pocket, "I mean... I know people that have... but not personally."

"Must be nice..." Hailey sighed.

"But that's not important right now!" Molly appeared much more determined, wriggling her sleeved hands from inside her pockets, "We-"

Just as she moved to say something more, the lot could hear slight stirring from behind her.

They all shifted quickly to see, finding Skye appeared to be waking from her state. As the tiny girl began to return to consciousness, she could feel her body begin to chill with feeling of the cold around her. It was a little rough waking up after a collapse, and while she knew her health would most-likely suffer from it, she was more just pleased that a little fainting was all that came of it.

Still, disoriented and attempting to understand exactly what had taken place after the fact... "Ehhm..." Her eyes slowly creaked open, then immediately widened in large orbs to settle upon the group of girls that seemed to be staring down at her.

"Had a nasty time, didn't ya?" Lisa questioned somewhat eerily, causing Skye to recoil a bit from behind the thin blankets.

"We're going to take care of you from now on!" Molly brightly contrasted the former.

"So don't even think about skipping anymore meals, understand?" Hailey 'matter-of-factly' spoke with her naturally challenging aura.

"I'm sorry about them." Amber hesitantly offered.

Multiple beads of sweat began to trail down the rosey portions of Skye's pale face, "A-Ahhh..." Oh boy...

 **A/N: A most-needed conversation, no matter how sweet yet bittersweet the result...**

 **Speaking of Togetherness!**

 **How was everyone's Christmas? I hope you had a wonderful time filled with closeness, love, care, and everything you could have ever asked for!**

 **I hope this was what you asked for from me :]**

 **'Cause that's your gift.**

 **This.**

 **The chapter.**

 **And a merry christmas wish.**


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